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/• 



MEMOIRS 



LIEUT.-GENERAL SCOTT, LL.D. 



Mrittftt h^i gimfiflf. 



NEW YOKK: 
SHELDON '& COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 

3 3 5 BROADWAY, 
18G4. 






Entbred, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1S64. by 

WINFIELD SCOTT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



JOHN F. TROTT, C. S. Wr.8T0OTT & Co., 

STEREOTYPER, AND ELECTROTYPER, I'KINTEKS, 

«, 48, & 50 Greene St., New York. 79 John St., N. Y 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION, . 



-? 



PAGE 



CHAPTER I. 
Birth — Parentage— Schools — College, 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Law Studies— The Bar— Trial of Burr, ^^ 

CHAPTER m. 

Change of Profession— Adventure as a Volunteer— Return to 

THE Bar — Enters the Army, ^^ 

CHAPTER IV. 

V 

Four Years' Vacillation between Peace and War— the Bar 

a . . 30 

AND THE Sword, 



iv Contents. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAOB 

War Declared — Double Promotion — March to Canada, . . 49 



CHAPTER VI. 

Niagara Frontier — Capture of AVar Vessels — Battle of 

Qdeenstown — A Prisoner of War — Paroled, . . . 54 

CHAPTER VII. 

Kingston — Prescott — Montreal — Quebec — Sailed for Home — 

Gut of Canso — Washington, 69 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Colonel and Adjutant-General — Fort George — Ogdensburg — 

Hoop-Pole Creek — FRENr^ii Mills, 86 

CHAPTER IX. 

Reflections on Past Disasters — Called to Washington — 

Buffalo — Camp of Instruction — Campaign of 1814 Opened, 110 

CHAPTER X. 
Running Fight — CmrPE.vA, 124 

CHAPTER XI. 
Investment ok Forts — Battle of Niagara or Lundy's Lane, . 135 



Contents. v 

CHAPTER XII. 

PACK 

HoRS DE Coii/B^r— Princkton College — Philadelphia — Balti- 
more — Washington, ^'^^ 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Reduction of the Army— Visit to Europe— England— France, . 155 

CHAPTER XIV. 
England— London— Bath, 168 

• CHAPTER XV. 

Reflections on Peace and War— The Canker Abolitionism- 
State Rights — Nullification- Rebellion, . . . . 175 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Marriage — Reception of Swords and Medal, . . . .191 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Temperance Movement— Military Institutes— Tactics— Death 

of General Brown— Macomb Promoted— Animated Corre- 

204 
SPONDENCE, ...••••■•• 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Black Hawk War— Cholera in the Army— Indian Treaties- 
Romantic Tale, -^ ' 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PAOK 

Hejoins his Family — Ordkred to Charleston — Nullification — 

Incidents — Peace Restored, 233 

CHAPTER XX. 

Tactics — General Regulations — Florida War — Creek War — 

Jackson's War upon Scott — Court of Inquiry, . . . 258 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Honors Tendered — Biddle Family — Speech of R. Uiddle, M. C, 

Vindicating Scott — Jackson's Martial Law — IIis Death, . 275 

CHAPTER XXII. 

President Van Buren — Fine Temper — Canadian Agitations — 
Burning of the Caroline — Scott Sent to the Frontier — 
The Turmoil Quieted — Scott Sent to Remove the Ciiero- 
KEES, ........... 30] 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Scott Ordered Back to British Frontiers — Turmoil Renewed 

— Maine Boundary, 331 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Politics — General-in-Ciiief — Stops Unlawful Punishments — 
Attempts to Abolish his Rank and to Reduce his Pay — 
Mr. Adams and Mr. C. J. Ingersoll, 355 



Contents, vii 

CHAPTER XXV. 

I'AGE 

Letter on Slavery — Tracts on Peace and War — Mr. Polk 

President, 370 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

War with Mexico — General Taylor, 381 

CHAPTER XXVI r. 

Scott Ordered to Mexico — Visits Camargo — Re-embarks for 

Vera Cruz, 397 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

SiE3E AND Capture of Vera Cruz and the Castle of San Juan 

DE Ulloa, 415 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Battle op Cerro Gordo, Jalapa, Perote and Puebla — Halts — 

Visit to Cholula, 43ti 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Advance on the Capital — Halt at Ayotla — Reconnaissances — 

San Augustin — Contreras, 459 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Victories of Contreras — San Antonio — Churubusco, . . 477 



viii Contents. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

I'AGH 

iVuMisTicE — Negotiations — Hostilities Renewed — Battle of 

MoLiNos del Rey; — Capture of Chapultepec and Mexico, . 50a 

CIIAPTER XXXIII. 

liuiLLiANT Allusion to the Campaign — Retaliatory Measures 
— Martial Law — Safeguards — Proclamation — Defence of 
Pukbla, 538 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Question of Free Quarters — System of Finance— Spread of 

THE Troops, .......... 5i)2 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Suppression of Outlaws — Peace Commissioner — Treaty Signed 

— Mexican Overtures — Court of Inquiry, .... 574 ,/ 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Recepticns at New York and Elizabeth — Others Declined — 

Had Health — Thanks of Congress, etc., . . . 583 



^^ 







j/yv- — 





t 



INTRODUCTION 



The Englisli language is singularly barren of auto- 
biographies or memoirs by leading actors in the public 
events of their times. Statesmen, diplomatists, and 
warriors on land and water, who have made or mould- 
ed the fortunes of England or the United States, have 
nearly all, in this respect, failed in their duty to pos- 
terity and themselves. Their speeches, state papers, 
despatches, reports, letters, and orders remain, indeed, 
fragmentary monuments of their patriotic deeds ; but 
the Republican Ludlow, the Roundhead Whitelocke, 
Lord Clarendon, Bishop Burnet, and Sir William 
Temple,* five contemporaries, alone, of the Anglo- 

* Dean Swift, the literary executor of Temple, cites, in the preface to 
a part of his author's memoirs, an absurd objection that had been made to 



X Introduction. 

Saxon race, are exceptions, unless we add Swift, a sixth 
contemporary. This friend and counsellor of St. John 
and Harley, brought them into power (and, according 
to Dr. Johnson, dictated public opinion to England), 
mainly by a pamphlet — The Conduct of the Allies — 
that broke down the Godolphin ministry, supported 
by that eminent man. Lord Somers, and the wonderful 
series of Marlborough's victories. The masterly narra- 
tive — The Last Four Year's of Queen Anne, seems to 
complete Swift's claim to a place in the small category 
of makers and writers of history.* 

another part, earlier published, viz. : that the " author speaks too much 
of hhnself," and replies : " I believe those who make [this] criticism do 
not well consider the nature of memoirs. 'Tis to the French (if I mistake 
not) we chiefly owe that manner of writing, and Sir W. T. is not only 
the first, but, I believe, the only Englishman (at least of any consequence) 
who has ever attempted it. The best French memoirs are writ by such 
persons as were principal actors in those transactions they pretend to re- 
late, whether of wars or negotiations. Those of Sir W. T. are of the same 
nature." Hence the necessity of naming himself at every turn — otherwise 
his narrative would have been like Shakspeare's Prince of Denmark — 
the part of Hamlet left out ! 

* It is remarkable that the Vanity of Human Wishes has, merely to 
illustrate the undcsirableness of old age, hitched in a couplet the great 
oaaster of the sword and master of the pen mentioned in the text : 

" From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, 
And Swift expires a driv'ler and a show." 



Introduction. xi 

It was otherwise with very many eminent men 
of antiquity. Moses and Joshua, among the sacred 
writers, belonged to the category of great public lead- 
ers. Xenophon saved the ten thousand Greeks who 
were in the expedition of Cyrus, and left us a most 
graceful narrative of his services. Cato, the censor, 
drew up the history of the first and second Punic wars, 
in which he served. Sylla, who passed through un- 
paralleled scenes of blood and horror, found time to 
write twenty-two Boohs of Commentaries, and those 
of Caesar, having reached the art of printing, cannot 
now fail to live forever. Polybius, too, was an actor 
in many of the scenes we have from his historic pen. 
Coming down to modern times, France and Germany 
abound in autobiographies and memoirs {pour servir d 
Vhistoire) from the hands of the makers of history — 
Sully, De Thou, De Eetz, St. Simon, Yillars, Freder- 
ick the Great, the two Segurs (father and son), Gohier, 
Napoleon, Suchet, Savary, St. Cyr, Chateaubriand, 
Lamartine, Talleyrand, etc., etc., etc. 

If, however, such writers had the great advantage 
of a personal knowledge of tlieir respective subjects, 
they were, on the other hand, beset, from the begin- 
ning to the end, with some counterbalancing difticul- 



xii Introduction. 

ties : 1. The danger of self-neglect, in the way of just 
praise or of just reproach, and 2. Unworthy partiali- 
ties and jealousies for or against their co-actors. 

" I place my name," says Cardinal de Ketz to a 
friend, " at the head of tliis work [Memoirs of his own 
times], in order to lay myself under the strongest obli- 
gation not to diminish and not to magnify the truth in 
anything. Yain-glory and false delicacy are the two 
rocks which the greater number of those who have 
written their own lives, have not been able to avoid. 
President de Thou, in the last generation, steered clear 
between them, and, among the ancients, Ctesar made 
no miscarriage. You, w^ithout doubt, will do me the 
justice to believe that I would not allege those great 
names, on an occasion personal to myself, if sincerity 
were not the sole virtue in which we are permitted — 
nay commanded — to equal the most illustrious exam- 
ples." 

In Dr. Middleton's Life of Cicero, the embarrass- 
ments of that great orator and writer, on a similar 
occasion, are thus presented : 

"In this year, also, Cicero wrote that celebrated 
letter * to Lucceius, in w^hich he presses him to attempt 

* Epis. Fam. 12. 



Introduction. xiii 

the history of his transactions. Liicceius was a man 
of eminent learning and abilities, and had just finished 
the history of the Italic and Marian civil wars ; with 
intent to carry it down through his own times, and, in 
the general relation, to include, as he had promised, a 
particular accoimt of Cicero's acts; but Cicero, who 
was pleased with his style and manner of writing, 
labors to engage him, in this letter, to postpone the 
design of his continued liistory, and enter directly on 
that separate period, from the beginning of his consul- 
ship to his restoration, comprehending Catiline's con- 
spiracy and his own exile. He observes, 'that this 
short interval was distinguished with such a variety of 
incidents, and unexpected turns of fortune, as furnished 
the happiest materials both to the skill of the writer 
and the entertainment of the reader; that when an 
author's attention was confined to a single and select 
subject, he was more capable of adorning it and dis- 
playing his talents, than in the wide and diifusive field 
of general history. But if he did not think the facts 
themselves worth the pains of adorning, that he would 
yet allow so much to friendship, to affection, and even 
to that favor which he had so laudably disclaimed in 
his prefaces, as not to confine himself scrupulously to 



xiY Introduction. 

the strict laws of history and the rules of truth. That, 
if he would undertake it, he would supply him with 
some rough memoirs, or commentaries, for the founda- 
tion of his work; if not, that he himself should be 
forced to do what many had done before him — vyritc 
his own life — a task liable to many exceptions and 
difficulties ; where a man would necessarily be re- 
strained by modesty, on the one hand, or partiality, on 
the other, either from blaming or praising himself so 
much as he deserved.' " 

Pliny, the younger, another accomplished orator 
and writer — ^unwilling to take the risk of portraying 
himself — also, but in terms rather less unmanly, in- 
voked the historic aid of a friend. 

In a letter * to Tacitus, he says : " 1 strongly pre- 
sage (and I am persuaded I shall not be deceived) that 
your histories will be immortal. I ingenuously o^^'n, 
therefore, I so much the more earnestly wish to find a 
place in them. If we are generally careful to have our 
persons represented by the best artists, ought we not 
to desire that our actions may be related and cele- 
brated by an author of your distinguished abilities? 
In view of this, I acquaint you with the following 
* Letter 33, Book vii. 



Introduction. ^^ 

affair, which, though it cannot have escaped yonr at- 
tention, as it is mentioned in the journals of the public, 
still I acquaint you with it, that you may be the more 
sensible how agreeable it will be to me, that this action, 
greatly heightened by the hazard which attended it, 
should receive an additional lustre from the testimony 
of so bright a genius." (Pliny here gives some rough 
notes of the public transaction in question, with a 
speech of his which settled the matter, and thus pro- 
ceeds:) "This short speech was extremely well re- 
ceived by those who were present; as it soon after- 
ward got abroad and was mentioned by everybody 
with general applause. The late emperor, Nerva 
(who, though at that time in a private station, yet in- 
terested himself in every meritorious action which con- 
cerned the public), wrote an admirable letter to me 
upon the occasion, wherein he not only congratulated 
me, but the age, which had produced an example so 
much in the spirit (as he was pleased to call it) of 
better days. But, whatever the fact be, it is in your 
power to heighten and spread the lustre of it: though 
far am I from desiring you would, in the least, exceed 
the bounds of reality. History ought to be guided by 
strict truth ; and worthy actions require nothing more. 



xvi Introduction. 

" Happy I deem those to be whom the gods have 
distinguished with the abilities either of performing 
such actions as are worthy of being related, or of re- 
lating tliem in a manner worthy of being read ; but 
doubly happy are they who are blessed with both of 
those uncommon endowments." — PLmy (^ Tadtus)^ 
Book vi., Letter 16. 

In general terms, applicable to all conterriporary 
history and biography, but, mainly, with special refer- 
ence to men of letters. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of 
Addison, finely touches the same ditficulties : 

" The necessity of complying with times, and of 
sparing persons, is the great impediment of biography. 
History may be formed from permanent monuments 
and records; but lives can only be written from per- 
sonal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and 
in a short time is lost forever. What is known can 
seldom be immediately told; and when it might be 
told, it is no longer known. The delicate features of 
the mind, the nice discriminations of character, and 
the minute peculiarities of conduct, are soon obliter- 
ated ; and it is surely better that caprice, obstinacy, 
frolic, and folly, however they might delight in the 
description, should be silently forgotten, than that, by 



Introduction. xvii 

wanton merriment and unseasonable detection, a pang 
shoidd be given to a widow, a daughter, a brother, or 
a friend. As the process of these narratives is now 
bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to feel 
myself ' walking upon ashes under which the fire is not 
yet extinguislied,' and coming to the time of which it 
will be proper rather to say ' nothing that is false, than 
all that is true.' " * 

In the £Jdinburgh Review^ January, 1850, on Lam- 
artine's History of the French Revolution of 1848 — 
■when a Government was extemporized, with the au- 
thor at its head — there is a passage so much to my 
purpose that I cannot resist placing it in this intro- 
duction : 

" The most valuable materials for the liistory of 
great ' events are undoubtedly afforded by the auto- 
biographies of those who took a distinguished part 
in them. They perceived the importance of details 
which a bystander would have neglected. They knew 
what was proposed and what was decided at secret 

* In these reserves, Johnson evidently had in view mere authors, not 
public functionaries — persons taking upon themselves high offices, and, 
therefore, amenable to historic exposure and censure for great personal 
defects and miscarriages. 



xviii Introduction. 

councils; they can tell us what they themselves did, 
and, what is often very difl'erent, what they intended. 
Such narratives, however, are comparatively rare : And 
those which we possess have generally been written 
long after the events — when the recollections of the 
narrator had lost their first vividness; while their 
publication is often delayed still longer, until the con- 
temporaries of the writer have passed away, — perhaps 
until he has passed away himself, — so that much of the 
restraint, which the liability to denial and exposure 
would have imposed on his inventions or on his sup- 
pressions, has been removed. The memoirs of M. de 
Talleyrand, for example — which we are only to have 
twenty years hence, will not be received with the con- 
fidence which they would have deserved if they had 
been published in his lifetime, or even immediately 
after his death : And one of the great merits of M. de 
Lamartine's work is its freedom from these objections. 
It must have been written within a few months of the 
events which it relates; and is published while almost 
every otlier actor in that great drama can protest 
against its statements or supply its omissions. On 
the other hand, of course, this proximity has its incon- 
veniences. M. de Lamartine cannot feel as impartial- 



Introduction. 



XIX 



Ij as if his work had treated of times long since passed ; 
or speak as boldly as if it had been intended to be post- 
humous. In following the course of this narrative, we 
accordingly often wish for names where we hnd mere 
designations, and for details where we find only gen- 
eral statements. Much is obviously concealed from us 
which it would have been useful to know, but danger- 
ous to tell. Undeserved praise, too, appears to be fre- 
quently awarded ; and deserved blame to be still more 
frequently withheld. These objections, however, are 
far more than counterbalanced by the freshness and 
vivacity of the narrative : a freshness and vivacity 
which even as great a poet as M. de Lamartine could 
not have given to it, if he had written it ten years 
later." 

In all narratives, the art of selecting, rejecting, and 
grouping incidents, is one of difficult attainment, and 
if not attained, length, tediousness, and confusion are 
inevitable. Truth may be lost mider a cloud of details 
and multiplicity of words, as well as by material sup- 
pressions and inventions. Indeed, the size of a book, 
on any given subject, will always be in the inverse 
ratio of the talent and the pains bestowed upon it. In 
a brilliant essay on history in general — Edinhurgh 



XX Introduction. 

Review^ May, 1828 * — tliere are some fine passages on 
this subject. I can extract but one : " If liistory were 
written thus [giving, without judicious selection, all 
that was done and said] the Bodleian library would 
not contain the transactions of a week. What is told 
in the fullest and most accurate annals, bears an infi- 
nitely small proportion to what is suppressed. The 
difierence between the copious work of Clarendon and 
the account of the civil wars in the abridgment of 
Goldsmith, vanishes, when compared with the immense 
mass of facts respecting which both are equally silent," 

I have drawn up this chart — marked with great 
names and solemn monitions — to present just charac- 
teristics of autobiography for my own guidance — per- 
haps, condemnation, in case of failure — in the execu- 
tion of the task (already too long delayed) indicated in 
the title. 

Napoleon, on his abdication, turned to the wrecks 
of his old battalions about him, and said : " I will 
write the history of our campaigns," Vindictively re- 
called from Mexico, but not till the enemy had been 
crushed and a peace dictated, Napoleon's declaration 

* By Macaulay, but omitted, with others, in his edition of bis Essays, 
London, 1843. 



Introduction. xxi 

and memoirs recurred to me, and I resolved, in my 
humble sphere, to wi'ite also. But circumstances (first 
bad health and next incessant occupations at Washing- 
ton, etc.) have, till now, suspended my purpose. In 
the meantime I have carefully abstained from reading 
a line published on the Mexican campaign, lest I might 
be provoked to seize the pen before having suflacient 
strength or leisure for literary composition. 

It will be seen that I aspire not to the dignity of a 
historian, but simply offer contemporary memoirs for 
the use of some future Prescott or Macaulay; and 
making no pretension to the gifts and graces of any 
of the great writers I have cited, I feel myself, on the 
other hand, to be superior to a few of them, in impar- 
tiality, candor, and firmness. 

It is comparatively easy to build up a big book — 
always an evil. It is only necessary to pile line upon 
line, document on document, Pelion on Ossa— and 
bulk is obtained. An author's difficulties, both of 
head and hand, as intimated above, lie in judicious 
culling and arranging — the compression of materials. 
My labors are now to be commenced, and in trying to 
fill the outline I have sketched, I hope not to lose my- 
self in verbosity, on the one hand, nor fail to give neces- 



X X i i Introduction. 

Bary development to interesting events on the other. 
As Macanlay has remarked, the Reverend Dr. !Nares, 
professor of modern history in the university of Oxford, 
has attained the full Brobdignagian dimensions in the 
Life of Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's treasurer : two thou- 
sand closely printed quarto pages, fifteen hundred 
inches in cubic measure, and sixty pounds avoirdu- 
pois weight ! Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes^ the 
smallest of books found in libraries, is, perhaps, the 
more perfect by reason of its smallness. Abounding 
in wit, humor, and satire, as well as in profound views 
of morality and politics, it, and Nares's work, though 
in difierent paths, are opposite illustrations of the apo- 
thegm already quoted. 

Undertaking an humbler subject, though one of 
numerous incidents, I sliall attempt the juste milieu 
attained by Yoltaire in the Life of Charles XII. of 
Sweden ; by Southey in the Life of Nelson, and by 
Bell in the Life of Canning. To be considered an 
approach to such models in the single power of com- 
pression, would satisfy the ambition of my unpractised 

hand. 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 

West Point, N. Y., July 5, 1863. 



MEMOIRS, ETC 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH — PABENTAGE SCHOOLS — COLLEGE. 

According to the family Bible, I was bom June 
13 1786, on the farm which I inherited, some fonr- 
teen miles from Petersburg, Virginia. My parents, 
William Scott and Ann Mason, both natives of the 
same neighborhood, intermarried in 1780. William's 
father, a Scotchman, of the clan Buccleuch, was the 
younger son of a small landed proprietor, and taking 
part with the Pretender, escaped from the field of 
CuUoden (1746) to Bristol, whence, by the aid of a 
merchant and kinsman, he was smuggled on board of 



^^:^ 'T^ i^, /«'t<' 



2 Parentage. 

a ship bound to Virginia, and buried himself in that 
colony before 1747, the date of the general amnesty. 

The fugitive crossed the Atlantic with nothing but 
a small purse borrowed from his Bristol cousin, and a 
good stock of Latin, Greek, and Scotch jurisprudence. 
He had now" to study a wew code — the English com- 
mon law ; but soon attained considerable eminence at 
the bar ; married late, and, in a year or two, died. 

In my sixth year, I lost my father — a gallant lieu- 
tenant and captain in the Kevolutionary army, and 
a successful farmer. Happily, my dear mother was 
spared to me eleven years longer. And if, in my now 
protracted career, I have achieved anything worthy of 
being written ; anything that my countrymen are like- 
ly to honor in the next century — it is from the lessons 
of that admirable parent that I derived the inspira- 
tion.* Perhaps filial piety may be excused for adding 

* I still often recall, with pain, that I once disobeyed my mother — a 
pain mitigated, however, by the remembrance of the profitable lesson that 
ensued. Being, on a Sunday morning, in my seventh year, ordered to get 
ready for church, I, in a freak, ran off and tried to hide myself. Pursued 
and l)rought back by a servant, a switch was sent for. Seeing that con- 
dign punishment was imminent, and that the instrument was a shoot torn 
from a Lonibardy poplar, the culprit luckily quoted this verse from St. 
Matthew : " Every tree that bringcth not forth good fruit [should] be 



Ance8t/ral Kindred. ii 

a few sentences more on the parents and collateral 
kindred of this lady — the daughter of Daniel Mason 
and Elizabeth his wife, the only child of John TFm- 
Jleld, probably the w'ealthiest man in the colony. The 
latter survived his daughter, and dying intestate, about 
1YT4, Winfield Mason, the brother of Mrs. Ann Scott, 
took, by descent, as the law then stood in favor of the 
eldest male heir, the whole of the landed estate of the 
grandfather — besides sharing equally in the personal 
property with his two sisters. I, his namesake, stood 
nearly from my birth, the principal devisee, in an un- 
cancelled will that I read after my uncle's death, of 
nearly the whole of that large estate ; but marriage 
and the birth of a child, very properly, abrogate a 
testament of a prior date ; and Winfield Mason, 
though he married very late in life, left several chil- 
dren. His wife was the daughter of a near neighbor 
and very remarkable man — Dr. Greenway, who well 
deserves a separate memoir from an abler pen ; but of 



hewn down and cast into the fire." The quotation was from the regular 
lesson I had read to my mother a short time before. The rod was spared ; 
but the pious mother seized the occasion to make her son comprehend 
that, beginning with the sin of disobedience, I, myself, might soon become 
a tree fit to be hewn down, etc. 



i Ancestral Kindred. 

whom it is not known that even the briefest sketch 
has ever been published, although, he has now been 
dead some seventy years.* His descendants being 
without ambition or particular distinction, and earlj 
dispersed, the sources of a full biography in this case 
are, probably, forever lost. A rescue from entire ob- 
livion is, however, here attempted upon a boyish mem- 
ory that has rarely failed ; for I perfectly recall the 
white head and florid face of tlie doctor as late as 1793, 
when he must have been fourscore and ten, and in 
whose library, in the time of the son, I spent many 
profitable hours. From the famil}' and neighborhood 
traditions, annotations on books, and unpublished 
writings — it, however, may be safely said that James 
Greenway was born just within the English line, on 
the borders of Scotland, and inherited his father's trade 
— that of a weaver. Genius, however, stimulated by 
ambition, is difficult to suppress. The weaver boy, in 
a free school, over the border, contrived to make him- 
self acquainted with the Greek grammar, and to be- 
come a better Latin scholar — ^languages which, with 
French and Italian, he cultivated, laboriously, through 

* He may be noticed iu Barton's Elements of Botany, and perhaps by 
European savans. 



Ancestral Kindred. 5 

the greater part of his long life, as was evident from 
notes on his Homer, Horace, Pliny the naturalist, 
Rabelais, Dante, etc., etc. — all originals. He early 
migrated to Yirginia, where he wrought at his humble 
craft while preparing for a license to practise medicine, 
by which, combined with extensive milling operations, 
he amassed an ample fortune. His professional repu- 
tation brought him patients from a wide circumference, 
but, as he became rich, he gradually withdrew from 
the practice of medicine, and gave himself up to the 
culture of polite literature and natural history, par- 
ticularly botany, and left a hortus siccus of some forty 
folio volumes, in which all the more interesting plants, 
etc., of Yirginia and North Carolina, were described in 
classical English and Latin. His success, in that de- 
partment and others of science, procured for him 
honorary memberships in several European Societies^ 
and an extensive correspondence with Linnaeus, which, 
with a presented portrait of the great Swedish natural- 
ist, were long preserved in the family library. ^' Confi- 
dent memory, at this distance of time and place, can 
add only a few other particulars to illustrate the doc- 
tor's great versatility of parts and pride in founding a 
family. 



6 School Days. 

Living some twenty-odd miles from tlie nearest 
market town (Petersburg), no musical teacher could be 
hired by him. Hence, when the first daughter ap- 
proached her teens, the doctor, after possessing himself 
of a guitar and harpsichord (pianos were yet unknown) 
had first to instruct himself in the use of their strings, 
which was the less difficult as he was, earlier, a scien- 
tific flutist and violinist ; next he had to imj^art the 
same lesson to that daughter, laying her under the in- 
junction not to marry until she had done as much for 
the next sister. In this way tlie whole of a numerous 
family were made highly musical — the father being the 
instructor also of the only son in the use of the flute 
and violin. 

My school and college days were marked by no ex- 
traordinary success and no particular failure. There 
was no want of apprehension ; but the charms of idle- 
ness or pleasure often prevailed over the pride of 
acquisition. Still, if I were not always the leader of 
classes, I was never far behind, and, as a summary of 
my whole life, it may be added, that a certain love of 
letters — sometimes amounting to a passion — has kept 
my mind in constant health and in the way of progress. 
One of my earlier schoolmasters — James Hargrave — a 



School Days. 7 

Quaker, labored hard to curb my passions and to mould 
my character to usefulness and virtue. This was in my 
twelfth and thirteenth years, at boarding school. It 
was in defence of this excellent man, of very small 
stature, that the pupil first discovered, some six years 
later, that he already possessed a great power of arm ; 
for, turning a corner, at a public gathering, he found 
the non-combatant, on a charge of running (as county 
land surveyor) a false dividing line, undergoing a se- 
vere handling by a half-drunken bully. A single blow 
brought him to the ground, stunned, and nearly sobered. 
Being allowed to rise, he advanced upon his assailant. 
The Quaker, true to his principles, jumped between, 
and finding his friend the more belligerent party, 
seized and so encumbered him, that the bully partially 
hit him several times, when, by a sudden movement, 
the Quaker was thrown ofif and the bully again floored. 
The noise caused a rush of the crowd to the scene, 
where learning the original cowardly attack, it cost 
the Quaker and his pupil their greatest effort to save 
the bully from further punishment and perhaps death.* 

* On visiting home after the War of 1812-15, I met my friend, Har- 
grave, at the scene of the above affray. The greeting, on one side, was 
quakerist : " Friend Winfield, I always told thee not to fight ; but as thou 
wouldst fight, I am glad that thou were'nt beaten." 



8 School Days. 

Another and a more distinguished teacher — Jamcb 
Og'dvie^ a Scotchman, rich in physical and intellectual 
gifts — is entitled to notice at the hands of a pupil, 

Mr. Ogilvie professed to have a special call to the 
instruction of youth, and always urged upon his pup Ik 
to give two or three years each to the same pursuit on 
the reciprocal obligation of imparting a great benelit, 
and for the further reason that no one so thoroughly 
masters a subject as he who obliges himself to teach it • 
methodically. 

His first high school was on the Rappahannock ; 
the last in Richmond. I was a year with him in the 
latter, just before entering college. Here were taught, 
besides the ancient classics, rhetoric, Scotch meta- 
physics, logic, mathematics, and political economy — 
several of them by lecture. Most of the pupils were 
approaching manhood ; but as too much was attempted 
within a limited time, by republican short cuts to 
knowledge, it is feared that all who entered sciolists, 
left the school without the ballast of learning. 

Mr. O., always eccentric, being an opium eater, 
often exhibited, before the doses became too frequent, 
phases of preternatural brightness. His last few years 
in America, before returning home to claim a peerage, 



College Life. 9 

were spent as an itinerant lecturer. Though a wel- 
come guest everywhere, he took up collections to 
defray travelling expenses. He thus declaimed, from 
a carefully prepared rost/rum, several brilliant compo- 
sitions of his own, formed on the model of Cicero, with 
other illusory accompaniments— the dress, the gestures, 
the organ swell, and dying fall— of the great Roman 
orator. They were magnificent specimens of art ; only 
the art was too conspicuous. 

The student, now waxing fast into manhood, passed, 
in 1805, to William and Mary College, where, instead 
of relying on the superficialities of his high schools, he 
should have entered years before, and have worked his 
way regularly through. This blunder has been felt all 
his life. The branches of knowledge selected for his 
new studies were chemistry, natural and experimental 
philosophy, and the common law. These he pursued 
with some eagerness and success ; as also civil and m- 
ternational law— the bar being looked to as a profes- 
sion, and, at the same time, the usual road to political 
advancement. 

This was the spring tide of infidelity in many parts 
of Europe and America. At school and college, most 
bright boys, of that day, affected to regard religion as 



10 College Life. 

base superstition, or gross li}^ocrisy — such was the 
fashion. Bishop Madison, President of William and 
Mary College, contributed not a little, within his sphere, 
by injudicious management, to the prevalent evil. It 
was his pious care to denounce to the new comers cer- 
tain writings of Hume, Yoltaire, Godwin, Helvetius, 
etc., etc., then generally in the hands of seniors. These 
writings the good bishop represented as sirens, made 
perfectly seductive by the charms of rhetoric. Curi- 
osity was thus excited. Each green youth became im- 
patient to try his strength with so much fascination ; 
to taste the forbidden fruit, and, if necessary, to buy 
knowledge at whatever cost. 



CHAPTER II. 

LAW STUDIES THE BAR — TRIAL OF BURR. 

Being my own master, since the death of my mother, 
I next transferred myself, in my nineteenth year, from 
college to the law office, in Petersburg, of David Rob- 
inson, Esquire, a very learned scholar and barrister, 
originally imported from Scotland, as a tutor, by my 
grandfather. The young man, born a generation too 
late to come under the fenile of the family pedagogue, 
was now affectionately claimed as a law pupil* by this 

* Mr. Robinson, in my time, had but two other students in his office- 
Thomas Ruffin and John F. May. The first of these and the autobiographer 
did not chance to meet from 1806 to 1853, a period of forty-seven years, 
when Mr. R., Chief Justice of North Carolina, came to New York as a lay 
member of the General Protestant Episcopal Convention. The greeting 
between them was boyislily enthusiastic. The chief justice, at the table 
of the soldier, said : " Friend Scott, it is not a little remarkable, that of the 
three law students, in the same office, in 1805 and 1806-all yet in good 
preservation-our friend May has long been at tlie head of the bar in 



12 Burr's Trial. 

veteran of the bar, who, living, do^vn to 1833, in the 
practice of all the charities of life toward high and 
low, within his sphere, is likely to have continued to 
hira a great professional longevity by his able reports 
of the debates in the Virginia Convention on the adop- 
tion of the Federal Constitution, and the trial for high 
treason of ex-Yice-President Aaron Burr. 

I had just ridden my first circuit, as an incipient 
man of law, when, like a vast multitude of others, in- 
cluding the flower of the land, I hastened up to Rich- 
mond to witness a scene of the highest interest. Aaron 
Burr, of the city of New York, a distinguished officer 
of the Revolution ; — at the bar and in politics, first the 
rival, and then, in a duel, the murderer of Alexander 
Hamilton ;— an ex-Yice-President of the United States, 
and, before, an equal competitor with Thomas Jefier- 
son in many anxious ballotings in the House of Repre- 

Sonthern Virginia ; I long at the liead of the bench in North Carolina, 
and you, the youngest, long at the head of the United States Army ! '' 
The last that I saw of this most excellent man, always highly conservative, 
he was a member of the Peace Convention that met in Washington in 
the spring of 1861. Had his sentiments, the same as Crittenden's, pre- 
vailed, we should now (July, 1863) have in the thirty-four States fewer by 
several millions of widows, orphans, cripples, bankrupts, and deep mourn- 
ers to sadden the land. Judge Maj', fortunately for him, died before the 
commencement of this horrid war. 



Burr's Trial. 13 

sentatives for the Presidency — -was now to be tried for 
high treason, and, if found guilty, to receive a traitor's 
doom. This was the great central figure below the 
bench. There he stood, in the hands of power, on the 
brink of danger, as composed, as immovable, as one of 
Canova's living marbles. * Party spirit, out of court, 
had taken possession of the case, the factions having 
changed sides. It was President Jefferson who directed 
and animated the prosecution, and hence every Repub- 
lican clamored for execution. Of course, the Federalistaf; 
forgetting Hamilton — the murdered Hamilton, emi- 
nently qualified to be considered great among the 
greatest of any age or country — compacted themselves 
on the other side. The counsel for the defence were 
equal to the great occasion. Luther Martin, a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, was, in himself, 
another Yiner's abridgment of the law in twenty folio 
volumes. The keen, the accomplished John Wick- 
ham was always ready with learning, eloquence, wit, 
logic, or sarcasm, as the case required. Few men ever 
entered an arena so well armed. Benjamin Botts, just 
emerging from the provincial bar, also made his mark 
at this trial. With little gesture, and scarce a figure 
of speech — conforming to Swift's notion of a good 



14 Burrs Trial. 

style — " proper words in proper places " — Mr. B. 
scarcely stood second to anybody in general power. 
Shrinking from no difficulty, liis severe analysis shat- 
tered and dissolved the most knarled subjects, and 
then, with a driving logic, he sent home the main point 
in debate to the conviction of all hearers. With a fine, 
manly head, and soft manners in private, there was, 
when he rose to speak, an imposing solemnity on his 
brow, and a fearful earnestness of look — such as more 
recently distinguished the Scotch Presbyterian minis- 
ter, Edward Irving, in his London Chapel.* And yet 
there was another brilliant star in this forensic galaxy. 
W^illiam Wirt, who in his previous limited circle had 
not been without briefs and admirers, now stood for 
the first time on a stage worthy of his genius and am- 
bition. Appointed coadjutor to Mr. Hay, the United 
States' District Attorney, the burden of the prosecution 
and the defence of the prosecutor (including the Presi- 
dent) became his burdens. The necessities of the case 
were incessant and great. In the preliminaries of the 
trial — in the light skirmishing of many weeks which 
preceded the main shock of battle, lie held his own 

* Mr. Botts, the most intrepid of men, perished at the burning of the 
Richmond theatre, assisting the feeble to escape, Christmas week, 181 1. 



Burr's Trial. 15 

well. Nor did lie fail in any part of the trial, though 
as jet far from that depth in the law and mastery in 
argument which so greatly distinguished his later ca- 
reer. At every turn and effort, however, he caused 
himself to be felt and respected ; but at certain times, 
when it was required to call back fugitive attention, in 
order to another march in the argument, Mr. Wirt 
could soar, for the moment, high above his subject, 
and by bursts of rhetoric and fancy captivate all hear- 
ers. These quickening passages in his oratory will 
ever command the admiration of the young ; nor can 
age always find the heart to contemn them. 

There were other counsel, on both sides, but of past, 
or local standing, adding nothing to the aggregate in- 
terest of the scene, I^ot so of man}' eminent men, spec- 
tators from a distance — as Commodore Truxtun, Gen- 
eral Eaton, of Derne memory ; General Jackson (wit- 
ness ) ; Washington Irving,'^' etc., etc. ; besides distin- 
guished Yirginians — John Kandolph, foreman, and 
Littleton Waller Tazewell, member, of the grand jury ; 
William B. Giles, John Taylor, of Caroline, etc., etc. 

* It was there that I first made the acquaintance of this charming man 
and distinguished author — an agreeable acquaintance continued through 
England, France, and America, down to his death. 



16 Bun's Trial — Reflictions. 

But the interest of the trial, eminent as was the 
standing of the defendant ; eminent as was the forensic 
talent engaged ; brilliant as were the surroundings, and 
great as were the passions excited — the hatreds, hopes, 
and fears of party — tlie interest would have been less 
than half, but that the majesty of the law^ was, on the 
great occasion, nobly represented and sustained by 
John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. 
His was the master spirit of the scene. 

To Congress, at the next meeting, the President sub- 
mitted the case, that it might be seen, as he said, wheth- 
er the acquittal of Colonel Burr of high treason was 
tlie result of a " defect in the testimony, in the law, or 
in the adtninisitration of the laiv^ Tlie latter was un- 
derstood to be his oj)ini()n. The calm judgment of the 
bar, however, has now hjng been, that though the crime 
had been committed, the prosecution broke down in its 
legal proofs. This is to be regretted — not tliat the 
thirst for blood was not slaked on the occasion ; but 
because, tliere never having been an execution in the 
United States for the highest of crimes, our people 
were, in 1832 and 1861, still untaught a most needful 
lesson — that playing at treason is a dangerous game ! 
Hence, to threaten treason has become an ordinary 



Refiections Continued. 17 

party device in nominating presidents, and in factious 
debates even on the floors of Congress ; hence, nullifica- 
tion in 1832-'33, and hence the present (1863) mighty 
rebellion.* 

* It is a striking fact that three of our ex-Vice-Presidents — Aaron 
Burr, J. C. Calhoun, and J. C. Breckinridge — became, each in his day, a 
leader in treason. 



' CHAPTER III. 

CHANGE OF PROFESSION ADVENTURE AS A VOLUNTEER 

RETURN TO THE BAR ENTERS THE ARMY. 

It was as a newly fledged lawyer, looking on the 
trial just described as a fine professional study, that a 
difierent career suddenly dawned upon me. In a sin- 
gle night I became a soldier. 

Burr's trial commenced May 22, 1807. A month 
later the outrage was committed by the British frigate 
Leopard, on the United States frigate Chesapeake, in 
our waters near the capes of Virginia. The whole 
country was fired with indignation. July 2, President 
Jefferson issued a proclamation, interdicting the use of 
our harbors and rivers to all British war vessels. Vol- 
unteers were called for to enforce the interdict — that is, 



Became a Volunteer. 19 

to prevent landings to obtain fresh water, provisions, 
etc. The proclamation reached Richmond late in an 
evening. I had not before belonged to any military 
organization ; but early the next morning, at the parade 
of the Petersburg troop of cavalry (which had tendered 
its services in advance), I was in their ranks, mounted 
and fully equipped for the field, having travelled 
twenty-five miles in the night, obtained the uniform 
of a tall, absent trooper, and bought the extra fine 
charger under me. From that, my first parade, the 
troop marched off for the scene of its duties. 

The route marches and encampments of volunteers 
have, unfortunately, become too familiar to hundreds 
of thousands of our people of the present day, to be 
worth describing in this place. One incident, however, 
occurred to me in the expedition, which came very near 
being of great national importance. 

I belonged to a detached camp, in a charming grove, 
some two miles fi'om Linn Haven Bay, opposite to the 
anchorage of the British squadron. There lay Sir 
Thomas Hardy, a favorite of Nelson, with several line- 
of-battle ships in sullen grandeur. Toward the camp, 
the coast was studded with downs {dunes, sand hills'), 
behind which our small pickets were posted. One of 



20 Lance Corporal — Made Pnsoners. 

these was eomnianded by me as lance corporal (that is, 
corporal for the nonce), when, learning one night that 
an expedition from the squadron had gone up a neigh- 
boring creek, I hastened with my guard to intercept 
its return. At the proper point a charge was made, 
and the whole crew, two midshipmen and six oarsmen, 
made prisoners. This was the more easily done, it is 
true, as they were all unarmed, and by the ebb of the 
tide the boat could scarcely be pushed through the 
mud. The picket being relieved, and returning to the 
pleasant camp next morning, the ex-corporal, jealous 
as Hotspur of his prisoners, had the exclusive charge 
of them conceded to him. The midshipmen sat on his 
right and left at a sylvan table, around which the whole 
troop — consisting of young lawyers, doctors, and mer- 
chants, like so many officers — took their meals and 
hobnobbed together. Of course, at dinner, extra 
wine and porter were allowed the coi-poral for his 
charge, who, astonished, inquired if all American sol- 
diers lived like gentlemen ? 

This incident, which gave life to the camp, was re- 
garded as quite an " untoward event " in Washington. 
The Federalists were numerous and bitter in opposition, 
and as a republic is never prepared for war, perhaps a 



Return to the Bar. 21 

little temporizing was necessary. Hence, notwithstand- 
ing the long series of British wrongs, capped by the re- 
cent outrage, Mr. Jefferson hesitated to take open and 
direct measures of retaliation. After deliberation and 
delay, orders came to restore the prisoners to Sir Thomas 
Hardy, with the imbecile admonition, usual in such 
cases : Take care not to do so again. 

In February, 1816, I met, in London, at Lord Hol- 
land's hospitable board, one of those midshipmen, then 
Captain Fox. By his request he was brought up and 
presented. He began by apologizing for supposing that 
the major-general before him could be the Corporal 
Scott whose prisoner he had once been ; but added, 
" the name, height, etc., etc., seem to exclude doubt." 
On being assured on the subject, a most cordial greet- 
ing and intimacy ensued between the parties. 

The special outrage on the Chesapeake frigate was 
now in a train of settlement. The prospect of war 
seemed at an end, as the smaller wrongs would, it was 
supposed, follow the course of the greater. The young 
soldier had heard the bugle and the drum. It was the 
music that awoke ambition. But the new occupation 
was gone. He had to fall back on hie original profes- 
sion. 



22 South Carolina Legislature. 

I left Virginia in October, 1807, intending to estab- 
lish myself in the practice of the law at Charleston, 
South Carolina. I took Columbia in the way, to peti- 
tion the Legislature to dispense me from the twelve 
months' previous residence required of non-native ap- 
plicants for admission to the bar. The law makers in 
South Carolina, of 1807, composed the most dignified 
as well as the most intelligent body of the kind then in 
the Union. Among these were William Lowndes, the 
most accomplished statesman, generally, of his day — 
not merely in wisdom, but also in temper and powers 
of conciliation. Langdon Cheves was already an able 
debater, much confided in by the House and his people 
at home. William Drayton, mild, pensive, persuasive, 
was high in the law, and philosophy of legislation. 
Caton Simmons, quite young, with a wide scope of in- 
tellect, had ready eloquence and an indomitable spirit. 
There was also another Lowndes and two Deases — all 
men of mark ; and every member named, with scores 
of others, conspicuous for good manners, good morals, 
and, at least, a leaven of genuine chivalry. John C. 
Calhoun was yet at home, in the early practice of 
the law. 

I spent many weeks agreeably and profitably at 



Charlesto^t^Slave Ships. 23 

Columbia, including the period of that session ; but my 
petition failed from the want of time. 

I next made arrangements for in-door practice in 
Charleston, till time should qualify me to appear in 
court, and went down to that city in company with, 
and under the patronage of a friend, a man of very re- 
markable gifts and virtues, Judge Wilds, a native of 
the State, yet under forty, and high on the bench. So 
fine a head and stature have rarely been seen. To 
genius and learning was added, in his case, a temper 
sweet as that of a child. He it was who, in sentencing 
a master that had wilfully killed a slave, to a fine of a 
hundred pounds, currency— the penalty limited by an 
old statute,— wept tears of bitterness that he could not 
substitute the gallows, and threw out such a flood of 
indignant eloquence against the barbarity of the law, 
that it was by the next Legislature unanimously repeal- 
ed. But, alas ! " whom the gods love, die young." 
I arrived at Charleston Christmas eve, 180Y.* I 

* A very few days earlier there came into port two slave ships filled 
with native Africans, the last that ever were entered at an American cus- 
tom house, as the trade ceased with the year 180Y. The cargoes, promptly 
landed, appeared to have been well cared for on the ocean, where but few 
had died. All were fitly clothed, lodged, and fed. A few, wasted by sick- 
ness, were placed in an infirmary, but fearing that it was intended to pre- 



24 Returns North. 

there learned that the prospect of hostilities with Eng- 
land had, at Washington, flared up again. Only the 
affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake, as it turned out, 
had been atoned — ^leaving the prior British wrongs, and 
many new cases of the same class, to rankle in the 
hearts of Americans. Hen.e it was believed, almost 
universally, at Charleston, that the embargo on all 
American shipping, just laid, was but the immediate 
precursor of a war manifesto on the part of Congress. 
I, strong in that opinion, promptly abandoned my new 
law arrangements and embarked for Washington, via 
New York, to seek a commission in some new marching 
regiment. A bill, indeed, authorizing the trebling of 

pare them to be eaten, they starved themselves to death. All believed 
that they would rise from the grave in their native land. Several Cuban 
planters, visited on their estates, gave illustrations of a like superstition. 
One of them, who cultivated sugar on the coast, had a mountain infirmary 
to which he sent, out of a purchase of some forty new arrivals from Africa, 
seven adults, men and women, who were in feeble health. Not doubting 
they were intended for their master's table, all hung themselves the first 
night. Africans are as fond of jewelry as the nouveau riche among our- 
selves. Thus, a young woman, selected from a cargo, was kindly treated 
iind instructed as their personal servant, by the mother and daughter of 
atiother fiimily. Very soon the iugrate pagan stole the ladies' jewels, cov- 
ered herself with them, and applied the fatal cord, in the firm belief that she 
would soon revive in her own African paradise, with all the stolen orna- 
ments upon her ! 



Visit to the President^— Promise, etc. 25 

our regular forces, had followed closely the embargo 
act ; but again, after a few weeks of excitement, the ad- 
vocates of peace at any price seemed to gain the ascen- 
dant. In the mean time the wotdd he a soldier had been 
received with favor by the President * and Secretary 
of War, on presentation by his neighbor and friend, 
the Hon. William B. Giles, and a captaincy promised, 
if the augmentation bill should become a law. 

* On waiting on Mr. Jefferson, we found with him Dr. Mitchell, of New 
York, and Dr. Walter Jones, of Virginia (two members of Congress), 
making three incessant talkers. Mr. Giles was also distinguished for his 
colloquial powers. In a sitting of thirty minutes, but two monologues 
were delivered — the other two personages being in a state of forced silence, 
but making efforts to get the word. Swift, who, according to Dr. Johnson, 
though captivated by the attention of steady listeners, always made regu- 
lar pauses in conversation, for the benefit of interlocutors, has had but few 
imitators in this politeness. Mr. Jefferson, one of those silenced, at length 
turned to the autobiographer : " Well young man, what have you seen in 
Washington ? Have you visited the Capitol ? Whom have you heard 
speak ? " "I was, sir, in the House yesterday, and heard a part of Barent 
Gardenier's six hours' speech on the embargo." This was enough. Mr. 
G., a member from the city of New York, was bitter in opposition, and 
Mr. J. knew he had handled him with severity in that speech. Suddenly in- 
terrupting Mitchell, the colleague of Gardenier, the president said : " Doc- 
tor, I have just thought of an object to which to compare the House of 
Representatives. Sir, it is like the chimneys to our dwellings ; it carries 
oflF the smoke of party, which might otherwise stifle the nation." Mr. 
Jefferson was now in his second term of office, and not a candidate for a 
third. 

2 



26 The Bar — Criminal Reform. 

Early in March, 1808, the war party being on the 
descending scale, and the spring term of the courts of 
Virginia about to commence, the 'postponed soldier re- 
turned to Petersburg, and began again the same circuit 
he had made the year before. 

The great leader of the Petersburg circuit was, at 
that day, George Keith Taylor, an ex-judge of a new 
circuit bench created in February, 1801, and abolished 
by the Republicans in 1802, the members of which 
were called midnight judges^ having been nominated 
and conJSrmed within the last hour of Mr. Adams's ad- 
ministration. Judge Taylor, the simplest, the most 
amiable and benevolent of men, had a gianfs strength, 
both in the halls of justice and legislation, but was 
always most of a giant on the side of freedom, mercy, 
charity. He it was, the first in Christendom, who em- 
bodied the principles of Beccaria in the criminal code 
of a state,* and founded a penitentiary, the comple- 

* Sir Samuel Romilly, in England, published a pamphlet in favor of a 
like amelioration in 178Y, and followed up the pubject, in Parliament, 
from the time he took his seat (in 1806) to his death in 1818. Sir Robert 
Peel, as Home Secretary, beginning in 1822, caused several bills to be 
passed which finally effected the object — some twenty-eight years after the 
amelioration in Virginia. It is worthy of remark that the principle of this 
reform is urged with great force in the Jiainbh); No. 114, of April, 1761, 



Sla/oery in Court, 27 

ment of that enliglitened measure ; and he it was, him- 
self, a slaveholder, who, in the great suits of the time, 
brought by slaves for the recovery of freedom, without 
fee in hand or in expectancy, always stepped forward 
their honored champion and victor. 

It is due to Yirginia, which had slavery forced upon 
her against her protests, to give a slight sketch of one 
of those trials. By law : 1. The plaintiffs were per- 
mitted to sue in forma pauperis, which exempted them 
fi-om all taxes and fees to the State and the officers of 
the com-t. 2. They had to prove that their ancestress, 
Hannah, was a free woman, in this case an Indian. 
This was done by several very aged witnesses, who re- 
membered her, and swore that she was always called 
an Indian, and had the peculiar marks of the race ; 
and 3. That they, the plaintiffs, were the descendants, 
through females, of that woman. Tradition was al- 
lowed to supply this link in the proof of each case. It 
being established that the ancestress was a fi-ee woman. 



and Beccaria's book was not pubUshed tiU 1'764. Beccaria was himself a 
periodical essayist, having established the Caffc, on the plan of the Speda. 
(or, at Milan, 1764. Was he a reader of the Rambler ? The Ramhler was 
traLlated into Italian, under the title of 11 Vagalondo ; but in what year 
is not ascertained. 



28 Slm'o^y in Court. 

that is, an Indian, and all presumptions in courts are 
on the side of freedom, the court next devolved on the 
defendants (masters) the burden of showing that though 
an Indian, Ilannah had been captured in war and sold 
into 'slavery, during a certain two years' when it was 
lawful so to deal with prisoners. (Such was the Span- 
ish law for more than two hundred j^ears.) Here the 
defendants broke down. Let it be added that, besides 
the counsel for the negroes, the judge, the clerk of the 
court, the sheriif, and every juryman at the trial, were 
all slaveholders. 

I had a slight connection with this interesting case. 
My brother held a number of the plaintiffs, his coach- 
man, Frank, being the leader of the whole. On the 
approach of the trial, I, the guest of my brother at the 
time, filled up the subpoenas for Frank, who, to serve 
them and to attend the court, called on his master for a 
h<irse, with money to pay expenses, which were fur- 
nished. On his success, Frank proposed to remain with 
his late master, on moderate wages, in consideration 
of the maintenance of some of the family vrho could 
not work, and did remain till death separated them. 

I find a most pleasurable emotion in recalling a 
a visit to Judge T.'s bedroom on the circuit, to beg 



Tlie Circuit — A Captcdn. 29 

advice on a critical point in a law paper I had in mj 
hand ; to remember how readily the fatigued judge, 
obese and lethargic, stopped his night toilet, and, in 
the kindest manner — which a life is not long enough 
to forget — gave all the information needed. And this 
great and good man also died young — under forty-five. 
At length the commission of captain of light, or 
flying artillery came to me, dated May 3, 1808. I re- 
cruited my company in Petersburg and Richmond in 
the course of a few months, and next was ordered, 
with it, to Norfolk, to be embarked for JS^ew Orleans. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

FOUR YEARS' VACILLATION BETWEEN PEACE AND WAK 

THE BAK AND THE SWORD. 

February 4, 1809, I embarked witli my company 
for New Orleans, in a clump of a ship, half rotten, and 
with a master so ignorant that he did not know of the 
passage among the Bahama Islands called the Hole in 
the Wall. Hence, we had to sail around the Island of 
Cuba (nearly doubling the passage), and arrived at the 
mouth of the Mississippi (the Balize) in thirty-live 
days, where the ship lost licr rudder on the bar. This 
accident causing a further delay, we did not reach 
New Orleans till April 1. 

The excitement that caused the augmentation of 
the army the year before, like that which led to the 



Peace or War f 31 

embargo, soon subsided, to rise and fall again and again 
in the next four years. So great was tlie calm in the 
summer of 1809 that I once more turned my mind to- 
ward civil pursuits, and sailed for Virginia. Before 
my resignation bad been definitely accepted by the 
War Department, I beard tbat grave cbarges would be 
brougbt against me if I dared to return to tbe army of 
tbe Lower Mississippi. Tbis was decisive. At once I 
resolved to face my accusers. Accordingly, I rejoined 
tbe main army, tben at Wasbington, near Natcbez, in 
November. 
^ Tbe army of tbat day, including its general staff, 
tbe tbree old and tbe nine new regiments, presented no 
pleasing aspect. Tbe old ofiicers bad, very generally, 
sunk into eitber slotb, ignorance, or babits of intem- 
perate drinking. Among tbe bonorable exceptions 
were : 1. Macomb, who won tbe battle of Plattsburg, 
and died, in 1841, a major-general and general-in-cbief 
of tbe army. 2. Swift, wbo aided in tbe general or- 
ganizing of tbe new army in 1812, took an active part 
in tbe field tbe next year, and gained tbe rank of brig- 
adier-general. 3. McRee, of Kortb Carolina, wbo won 
tbe rank of colonel in tbe field, and died in 1832 — an 
officer of rare merit. 4. Wood, of !New York, often 



32 The Old A^vny. 

distinguislied in the field, and Lrevetted ; was killed in 
the sortie from Fort Erie, September, 1814, after at- 
taining the rank of lieutenant-colonel, with another 
brevet then due liim, 5. Totten, distinguished at 
Queenstown, October, 1812, and who won the rank 
of brigadier-general at the siege of Yera Cruz. He is 
now (1863) twenty-odd years the able chief of his corps. 
6. Thayer, now long a colonel, brevetted for distin- 
guished conduct and meritorious services in the War 
of 1812-15, who, as superintendent from 181Y to 1833 
of the Military Academy, gave development and great 
excellence to that institution — stamping upon it his 
own high character. The foregoing were all engi- 
neers. 7. Moses Porter, first distinguished as a ser- 
geant of artillery at Mudfort (afterward Fort Mifflin), 
and in 17T9 and the following campaigns as lieutenant 
and captain. He died in 1822 a brigadier-general, a 
rank won by gallant services in the War of 1812-'15, 
and though deficient in science, yet by his gallantry in 
front of the enemy, his great practical abilities in the 
laboratory and workshops, combined with fine soldier- 
ly habits and bearing, he made himself invaluable. 8. 
Colonel Burbeck, to some extent a compeer of Porter 
in both wars, also a brigadier-general in 1812, and 



The Old Army. 33 

who liad nnich merit of the same general character. 
9. Captain (subsequently Brigadier) House. 10. Colonel 
Bomford, an engineer, but distinguished as an artiller- 
ist in the operations of the arsenals and machine shops. 
11. Colonel James Gribson, killed in the sortie from 
Fort Erie. 12. Lieutenant-Colonel Heileman, died 
at Fort Drane in 1836. 13. Major George Armistead, 
distinguished in the defence of Fort McHenry (Balti- 
more) in 1814. 14, 15, 16, and 17. Majors John San- 
ders, George Peter, and M. P. Lomax, with Captain 
Samuel Spotts, artillerists, all with merit, more or less. 
Coming to the old infantry (1st and 2d regiments), but 
few officers are remembered worthy of particular no- 
tice. 18. Pike, then major, was made a brigadier- 
general in 1813, and soon after fell at the capture of 
York, Upper Canada, imder Major-General Dearborn. 
19. Gaines, then a captain, who won, as brigadier, the 
rank of major-general by the defence of Fort Erie in 
August, 1814. 20 and 21. William K. Boote, and 
]S"inian Pinkney, who became colonels in the staff in 
1813; and 22. William Lawrence, made lieutenant- 
colonel in ] 814, for the defence of Fort Bowyer, on 
the Mobile. The general staff of the army of that day 
was small. 23. Colonel A. G. Nicoll was the respec- 
2* 



\ 



34 Old omd New Army. 

table adjutant and inspector of the army; but, 24. 
William Linnard, long " military agent," without army 
rank, and only made quartermaster-general, with the 
rank of colonel, in 1813, was a public servant of the 
rarest merit in his way. For thirty-three years he 
made, at Philadelphia, all disbursements on account 
of the army (saving the monthly payments to troops), 
amounting to fifty-odd millions, without the loss of 
a cent, and at the smallest cost in storage, clerk hire, 
and other incidental expenses ever known. He per- 
sonally performed double, if not treble, the amount of 
ordinary labor. His integrity, at his death in 1835, 
had long been proverbial. 25. Simeon Ejiight, pay- 
master, and who became colonel in 1813, was a good 
disbursing officer. 26 and 27. Surgeon Dennis Claude, 
M. D., and Surgeon Oliver H. Spencer, M. D., were 
eminent in their profession, and highly esteemed gen- 
erally. 

I will not here undertake to dissect, in like manner, 
the officers who entered the army with me in 1808 (and 
of whom my name alone remains, in 1863, on the Army 
Register). The labor would be great, and the interest 
to most readers small. It may, however, be safely said 
that many of the appointments were positively bad, 



New Army. 35 

and a majority of the remainder indiflFerent. Party 
spirit of that day knew no bounds, and, of course, was 
blind to policy. Federalists were almost entirely ex- 
cluded from selection, though great numbers were eager 
for the field, and in the New England and some other 
States, there were but very few educated Kepublicans. 
Hence the selections from those communities consisted 
mostly of coarse and ignorant men. In the other 
States, where there was no lack of educated men in 
the dominant party, the appointments consisted, gener- 
ally, of swaggerers, dependants, decayed gentlemen, and 
others — "tit for nothing else," which always turned 
out utterly xmfit for any military purpose whatever. 
These were the men, who, on the return of peace, be- 
came the " unscan-ed braggarts of the war," a heavy 
burden to the Government, and, as beggai-s, to the 
country. Such were the results of Mr. Jefferson's low 
estimate of, or rather contempt for, the military char- 
acter, the consequence of the old hostility between 
him and the principal officers who achieved our inde- 
pendence. In 1808 the West Point Academy had 
graduated but few cadets — nearly all of whom are 
specially mentioned above as meritorious ; for a booby 
sent thither, say at the age of 16, IT, or even 19— and 



36 Military Academy — Parties. 

there are many sueli in every neAV batch — is, in his 
term of four years, -duly manipulated, and, in most 
cases, polished, pointed, and sent to a regiment with a 
head upon his shoulders; whereas, if a booby be ot 
once made a commissioned officer, the odds are great 
that lie will live and die a booby. How infinitely un- 
wise then, in a republic, to trust its safety and honor in 
battles, in a critical war like that impending over us 
in 1808, to imbeciles and ignoramuses ! * 

It has been stated that I rejoined the army in 
November, 1809, The officers were divided into two 
factions. Nearly all old in commission, and a majority 
of the appointments of 1808, were partisans of Briga- 
dier-General Wilkinson, late commander on the Lower 
Mississippi. The remainder were the supporters of his 
successor, Brigadier-General Hampton. Wilkinson was 

* The officers appointed to the large augmentations of the army in 1812 
and 1813, by Prenident Madison, were, from nearly the same reasons, of 
the same general character. President Lincoln, and Mr. Cameron, Secre- 
tary of War, accepting the assistance of experienced officers near them, 
made, at the beginning of the rebellion, many excellent selections of officei-a 
for the new regiments then authorized. President Jackson, in resijcct to 
the 2d Dragoons, raised in his time, and President Polk, in respect to the 
Rifle Regiment raised in 1846, followed the e.Kamples of 1808, 1812, and 
1813. To the new regiments organized in the time of President Pierce, 
manv indifferent officers were given. 



Parties in the Army, 37 

the favorite of the new officers (all Republicans) be- 
cause, as brother conspirator, he had turned States evi- 
dence or " approver," against Burr, and Burr's treason 
had been prosecuted with zeal at the instance of Mr. 
Jefferson. Some of these partisans had heard me, in 
an excited conversation, the preceding summer, just be- 
fore I sailed for the North, say that I knew, soon after 
the trial, from my friends, Mr. Randolph and Mr. 
Tazewell, as well as others, members of the grand jury, 
who found the bill of indictment against Burr, that 
nothing but the influence of Mr. Jefferson had saved 
Wilkinson from being included in the same indict- 
ment, and that I believed Wilkinson to have been 
equally a traitor with Burr. This was in New Orleans, 
the headquarters of Wilkinson, commanding the de- 
partment. The expression of that belief was not only 
imprudent, but, no doubt, at that time^ blamable; 
inasmuch as the 6th article of war enacts that " any 
officer, etc., who shall behave with contempt or dis- 
respect toward his commandvng officer, shall be prm- 
ished," etc. But this was not the declaration that was 
now to be tried, but a similar one, made after my re- 
turn to the army, when Wilkinson, though still in the 
neighborhood and the "superior," was no longer the 



38 The Court Martial. 

" commcmding officer " (being off duty), but Hampton. 
I^otwitliBtanding tlie reasonable distinction between 
commanding and superior officer, plainly recognized 
in the articles of war (see the 9th), and strongly urged 
in the defence (made without counsel), the court found 
me guilty of this specification, and pronounced my 
" conduct unofficer-like ; " but not ungentlemanly, as 
was .expressly and maliciously charged by the prose- 
cutor. This officer, a violent partisan, who lived and 
died a reprobate — as a blind, to cover his instigator, 
trumped up another matter as the leading accusation, 
viz. : withholding money intended for the payment of 
the company ; and this too was charged under the head 
of " conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman." 
The case was simply this : that of some $400 remitted 
to me as captain for the payment of my company at 
Richmond, no sufficient receipts, through ignorance of 
forms, were taken for about $47, although the greater 
part of this small sum liad also been advanced to the 
individuals to w^hom it was due, and the remaining in- 
significant fraction could not be paid over by reason 
of the intermediate deaths of some two or three of the 
men. Certainly nothing could have been more irregu- 
lar than those payments ; but the prescribed receipt 



The Court Martial. 39 

rolls had not been furnished, and of the whole com- 
pany, including officers, not an individual had ever 
been present at a payment, or seen a roll used for 
the purpose. Moreover, captains are not the paymas- 
ters of their respective companies. The duty was 
wrongfully imposed. A proper paymaster should 
have been sent with the proper papers. The court 
found the accused guilty of this specification, and pro- 
nounced " his conduct unofficer-like," and sentenced 
him, on the two findings, to be suspended for twelve 
months. " But [it was carefully added'] the court 
ha/tie no hesitation in acquitting the accused of all 
fraudulent intentions in detaining the j>ay of his 
vneny And further, the court recommended that nine 
months of the suspension should be remitted. 

Those findings call for two general remarks : 1. 
The court, in each case, not only omit to add to 
" conduct unofficer-like " the attainting words " and 
ungentlemanly i''^ but in the only case where corrup- 
tion or dishonor could have been involved, the court 
unhesitatingly and expressly acquit the accused of 
"all fraudulent intentions." Indeed, how could fraud 
have been intended, or perpetrated? The Treasury 
charged the captain with the whole sum he receipted 



40 Court Martial. 

for. If he failed to return valid receipts for the whole 
amount, his pay would at once be stopped to balance 
the account. The Treasury, therefore, could not be 
defrauded, nor the unpaid men, as the Treasury would 
remain their debtor until the next visit of a regular 
paymaster. The imputation, therefore, was both stupid 
and malignant. 2. According to the 83d Article of 
War, any commissioned officer " convicted of conduct 
unbecoming an officer and a gentleman sJmU be dis- 
missed the service " — leaving the court no discretion. 

The earlier treason of Wilkinson, strongly suspect- 
ed at the time, beginning about 1787, and continued 
many years after he was the commander of the United 
States' Army, is now fully established in Charles Gay- 
arre's History of Louisiana, under Spanish domina- 
fion, by Wilkinson's own letters, addressed to the gov- 
ernor of Louisiana, found in the archives of Madrid. 
See the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of the History 
jyassim, published by Eedfield, New York, 1854. And 
for the manner of obtaining the letters,* see note to 
page 211, Mr. Gayarr6 was many years Secretary 
of State of Louisiana, and in 1835 elected to the 

* Thoy were copied under the eye of our minister (Hon. R. Saunders), 
by Mr. De Gayangos, for the legislature of Louisiana. 



Suspension. 41 

Senate of the United States, an honor he declined 
on account of bad health. Wilkinson's object was 
to separate the whole Western territory from the 
Union, to be added to tlie crown of Spain, whose pen- 
sioner he was down to 1T95. Burr's scheme was a 
little different, in which Wilkinson undoubtedly par- 
ticipated for a time. 

The autobiographer, in 1810, again returned to his 
home ; became domesticated with his invaluable friend, 
Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Petersburg, the worthy 
rival, at the bar, of George Keith Taylor ; a distin- 
guished member of the Senate of the United Slates, 
and long, before his death, the undisputed head of the 
law in Virginia. Conservative and moral in tiie high- 
est degree, this gifted man, son of a distinguished 
Episcopal minister, and the pupil of another— Neilly 
Kobertson — added to his high collegiate attainments 
no mean acquaintance with theology. In the evenings 
of a twelvemonth the parties read aloud to each other, 
with running comments, principally by the senior, per- 
haps, every choice passage in English literature. To 
those readings, and to his conversation and example, 
I have owed, in every struggle and triumph of life, 
great and pleasing obligations. 



42 Siispeyision. 

The following letter, which the writer had entirely 
forgotten till he saw it in print, alludes to this period 
— the period of his suspension. 

From the National iTiielligencer of February 25, 1855. 

"Petersburg, June, 1811. 

" Deak Sir : 

" I believe we have very little village news to give 
3^ou, nor do I know what would please you in that 
way. 

" Of m/yself — that personage who fills so large a 
space in every man's own imagination, and so small a 
one in the imagination of every other — ^I can say but 
little ; perhaps less would please you more. Since my 
return to Yirginia, my time has been passed in easy 
transitions' from pleasure to study, from study to pleas- 
ure ; in my gayety forgetting the student ; in the stu- 
dent forgetting my gayety.* I have generally been in 
the office of my friend, Mr. Leigh, though not unmind- 
ful of the studies connected with my present profes- 
sion ; but you will easily conceive my military ardor 
has suffered abatement. Indeed, it is my design, as 

* " If idle, be not solitary ; if solitary, be not idle." An apothegm of 
Burton paraphrased by Johnson. My early motto. 



Mei/u/rn to the Army. 43 

soon as circumstances will permit, to throw the feather 
out of my cap and resume it in my hand. Yet, should 
war come at last, my enthusiasm will he rekindled; 
a7id then^ who knows hut that I may yet write my his- 
tory with Tuiy sword f 

" Tours, truly, 

" WIN FIELD SCOTT." 
"Lewis Edwards, Esq., Washington." 

Mr. E., a friend, to whom the letter was addressed, 
a native of Massachusetts, had long resided in Peters- 
burg, and was, in 1811, a principal officer in the War 
Department. It is understood that his son, a respect- 
able resident of Washington, and for many years a 
most exemplary Commissioner of Pensions, communi- 
cated the original letter to the National Intelligencer 
on the occasion of the writer's promotion to the rank 
of lieutenant-general. 

In the autumn of 1811 I rejoined the army, head- 
quarters, Baton Eouge, by the land route, in a party 
of five, made up in South Carolina. In the preceding 
spring two detachments of troops were started — one 
from Fort Hawkins, on the Ocmulgee, then the In- 
dian frontier, far within Georgia, and the other from 



44: Indian Ccmrvtry. 

Baton Bouge, on the Miijsissippi, to cnt tbrougli the 
intermediate forests a practical wagon road, to bridge 
the smaller streams, to construct scows, and to estab- 
lish ferries (to be kept by Indians) on the rivers. The 
whole space, up to the eastern line of Louisiana, be- 
longed to, and was occupied by. Creeks, Choctaws, 
and other Indians, excepting two small settlements 
of less, together, than a dozen white families, about 
Fort Stevens and Fort Stoddart, both on the Mobile. 
The party was a little delayed, near the middle of the 
route, waiting for the meeting of the two detachments 
of troops. The wagons of the troops, with a gig and 
light wagon * belonging to the travellers, were the first 
wheeled vehicles that ever rolled over that immense 
tract of country of some six hundred miles in width. 

Crossing the Ocmulgee, the party encamped a day 
or two near the residence of Colonel Hawkins, an 
officer of merit in the army of the Revolution, much 
confided in by General "Washington, an ex-member 
of Congress from North Carolina, under the Consti- 
tution, and then Agent of the United States for the 

* This conveyed the tents, baggage, cooking utensils, and dry pro- 
visions of the travellers. Venison and turkeys were obtained by their 
rifles and purchase from the Indians. Corn (maize) for the horses, was 
also bought of the latter. 



Indian Customs. 45 

Creek Indians. This venerable functionary, with an 
extensive general library, in that savage country — 
still cultivating letters and science — did much to in- 
troduce schools and the mechanic arts among his red 
men, by whom he was regarded as a father. He gave 
me interesting information respecting the superstitions, 
laws, and customs of the Creeks — a small part of which, 
at least, seems worthy of record. In the adnainistra- 
tion of justice, in both civil and criminal cases, wit- 
nesses were sworn by their respective chiefs, to tell, 
first, all they positively knew of the cases under trial, 
and next to give their 'belief in respect to such par- 
ticulars as did not directly strike their senses — circum- 
stantial evidence. The chief of each then submitted 
to the judges (council) from his intimate knowledge of 
the witness, how much of the testimony, including he- 
lief, ought to be received, and how much rejected. 
This system of compurgation and pm-gation was said 
to have worked admirably. 

But few incidents, worth being remembered, oc- 
curred during this tour of my service on the Lower 
Mississippi. At Baton Rouge, I was appointed special 
judge advocate for the trial of a commanding officer 
(a colonel) of considerable ability, for gross negligence 



46 In the Staff. 

under the beads of discipline and administration. He 
bad several times before, by dilatory pleas, defied or 
baffled justice; but on this occasion was brought to 
trial, convicted, and censured. 

In the winter of 1811-'12 I was, from time to time, 
a member of Brigadier-General Hampton's staff, the 
commander of the Southern army, and much in New 
Orleans. Whilst in the city, there arrived, Christmas 
eve, from Pittsburg, in a cloud of smoke and steam, 
spitting fire, the first vessel of the kind that ever 
stemmed the currents of the mighty Western rivers. 
This steamer bore the name of a volcano — Etna or 
Vesuvius. Descending, she scarcely attracted the no- 
tice of Creoles, except that of a few, who thought her 
a flatboat, of unusual size, and accidentally on fire. 
But in a day or two, returning from a trip made to the 
English Turn, fifteen miles below the city, she aroused 
the cm-iosity and fears of the natives on the coast, when 
all broke off from their Christmas sports, and many on 
horseback, without saddles, and more on foot, some 
without hats, flew up to the city, with " bated breath 
and hair on end," to learn something of this water 
monster that could stem a current of six miles an horn- 
without sails, poles, or oars ! 



N&w Orleans. 47 

The prospect of war being again faint, I spent, 
about this period, some hours daily, in reviewing my 
Domat, Potbier, etc., in order to be prepared for the 
bar of New Orleans, ruled by the civil law. But, 
early in February (the mails at that time moved very 
slowly) news arrived that Congress had, January 11, 
1812, added twenty-five thousand men to the army. 
The eyes of all embryo heroes were at once turned 
upon "Washington and the British jSTorth American 
provinces. A declaration of hostilities on our part, 
however, was still withheld, till, at length, when tlie 
time for action seemed, certainly, to be at hand, 
Brigadier-General Hampton, with two of his suite — 
Captain Scott and Lieutenant C. K. Gardner (subse- 
quently a staff colonel of considerable abilities in the 
field and in the bureau) — embarked, May 20, 1812, at 
IsTew Orleans for Washington, via Baltimore. At that 
season a more stormy and tedious passage, between the 
two cities, was, probably, never known. But long as 
it was, it was most fortunate for the ship and passen- 
gers, particularly the three army officers, that it was 
not lengthened two hours more ; for, as we entered the 
capes of Yirginia, we had to pass close to a British 
frigate, Ipng off and on the bar. Standing on our 



48 Sails far Washington. 

course, in less than an hour we met a Hampton pilot 
boat under a cloud of canvas, going out to sea. This 
was the 2()th of June, and that boat, it was subse- 
quently known, was the bearer of despatches from the 
British Minister (Mr. Mansfield) at Washington, to 
say that Congress had declared war, two days before, 
against his country. Of this fact our j)ilot, shipped 
far out at sea, was, of course, ignorant ; and the master 
of the Hampton boat, on a trial for treason, was ac- 
quitted on the ground that he knew nothing of the 
war, and nothing of the contents of the despatch he 
delivered to the fi-igate. 

What a happy escape for me ! Had the New Or- 
leans sliip been captured, I might, as a prisoner, have 
chafed and been forgotten, for months — perhaps years 
— in a British prison ! 

Off ]^oi*th Point, some sixteen miles from Balti- 
more, the packet got aground, when, such was the ex- 
treme impatience for news, that several passengers, I 
among them, landed, to walk, or to find our way to 
the city as we might. 



CHAPTER Y. 

WAR DECLARED DOtTBLE PROMOTION MARCH TO CAJs'ADA. 

At the end of the fourth mile we came upon a 
stated militia meeting, the commander of which had 
just received the Declaration of War, the Manifesto, 
etc. Being in half uniform, and fired with the great 
news, I became the hero of the occasion. Mounted on 
a table, I was made to read the Declaration of War in 
the midst of the most enthusiastic shouts and cheers. 
This earned for me at once the offer of a seat in a 
double gig to Baltimore. But to me, this, the first 
day of the war, came very near being also the last ; 
for my new friend, the driver, being drunk with the 
sentiment of the occasion, or the potations at the syl- 
van barbacue, overturned the gig twice, each time at 
the great peril of limbs and necks. 



50 A Licutencmt- Colonel. 

Thanks to nij stars and the assumption of the 
reins, Baltimore was reached, in the dark, June 21, 
1812, where I (a captain) w^as made perfectly happy 
by learning that a double promotion awaited my 
arrival at Washington. About the sixth in prepara- 
tion for the field, among tlie old officers of the army, 
and a lieutenant-colonel in rank, at the age of twenty- 
six, with a hot war before me — seemed to leave nothing 
to be desired but the continued favor of Providence ! 

The stay of the travellers was but short in Wash- 
ington. And here terminated the official connection 
of a respected friend and commander, with the auto- 
biographer. 

Major-General Hampton was a man of mark. 
Early in life he displayed zeal and entei-prise under 
Sumter and Marion, and is mentioned with distinction 
in the battle of Eutaw. Tlie outlines of his character 
were sharp and well defined. In mind vigorous, 
prompt, intrepid, sagacious ; but of irj-itable nerves ; 
consequently, often harsh, and sometimes unjust ; but 
followed, in every instance, by the acknowledgment 
of wrong, or the evident signs of contrition and re- 
pentance. Toward the humble he frequently made 
more substantial amends — appropriate benefits — 



Scene in Wasliington. 51 

money, clothes, and employments — at tlie promptings 
of Ills own generous nature. Toward the antobiog- 
rapher, who enjoyed his inmost confidence, he was 
uniformly kind and considerate. An amusing case of 
quick temper, on his part, followed by placability, oc- 
curred at this visit to Washington. 

Immediately preceding there had been quite an 
unpleasant oflicial correspondence between General 
Hampton and Dr. Eustis, Secretary of War. E'ever- 
theless, mere coolness between the parties did not 
absolve the former from the official propriety of calling 
on the latter. Accordingly, the general, accompanied 
by me, made an early visit to the War Office. His 
name was no sooner announced than the Secretary 
flew to the door, with hand extended, to recei\e the 
general. The latter bowed, but to my great surprise, 
crossed his hands behind him. Nevertheless an official 
conversation ensued, after the parties were seated in 
the office, which, successively melted into a pleasant, 
and then a friendly character. The interview lasted 
perhaps an hour. The Secretary bowed the general 
to the door, when the latter turned, and offered both 
his hands. It was now the Secretary's turn to show a 
dignified resentment, and, accordingly, he exactly re- 



52 Set to Prepare Troops. 

tuliated the crossing of hands beliind ! But this was 
now very difierentlj regarded ; for Hampton was not 
disposed to treat the matter as a game of giuits. A 
messenger was despatched for General D. R. Wil- 
liams,* M. C. ft'om Sonth Carolina; pistols were pro- 
cured, a challenge indited, and everything made 
ready, on one side, for a deadly combat — if necessary. 
Dr. Eustis chose, as his friend, on the occasion, Mr. 
Secretary Hamilton (I^avy Department), another South 
Carolinian. These very judicious friends, looking to 
the advanced ages of the parties, and the ludicrous 
character of the quarrel, soon arranged that Hampton 
should, tlie next morning, present himself at the War 
Office door, to l)e met there l)y Dr. Eustis, with both 
hands extended, etc., in the presence of the same spec- 
tators — the autobiographer, and the chief clerk of the 
War Department ! 

The- new lieutenant-colonel was soon ordered to 
Philadelphia, to collect the companies of the regiment 
as fast as recniited, and to prepare them for the field. 
A camp of instruction was formed, — but the recruiting 

* It is impossible to name this most excelleut man, without adding 
ttrms of admiration, love, and respect — notwithstanding a foolish speech 
(the only one of the sort he ever made) that gave him, for the moment, 
the sobriquet of " thunder-and-lig)tining Williams." 



Cam]) near Pli'dadeljyhla. 53 

advanced slowly. Early in September the impatience 
of this officer could wait no longer, and he obtained, 
by solicitation, orders to proceed to ]^iagara. 

To perverted minds, " big wars make ambition 
virtue ; " but let the lovers of war look upon, after a 
general action, the dead and the dying on the field, 
and visit the hospitals. Ko doubt some wars are 
necessary, as was that of 1812, on our part ; and the 
constitutional and moral right, on the part of the 
Federal Union, of putting down the existing rebellion 
— if deemed expedient — is indisputable. IN^evertheless, 
I cannot but sigh, with Cowper — 

" For a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
Some boundless continuity of shade, 
Where rumor ****** 
Of unsuccessful or successful war, 
Might never reach me more." 

Dryden, too, in a dedication to the Duke of Or- 
mond, has expressed a lively abhorrence for " those 
athletic brutes, whom, undeservedly, we call heroes," 
and adds — " cursed be the poet who first honored with 
the name, a mere Ajax — a man-killing idiot." 



CHAPTER VI. 

NIAGARA FEONTIEK — CAPTURE OF WAR VESSELS — BATTLE 
OF QUEENSTOWN A PRISONER OF WAR PAROLED. 

In this temper of mind, the battles and sieges of the 
following narrative are not likely to be much elabo- 
rated; to be written at the charging step or to the 
sound of the trumpet. How different were the feel- 
ings of the young lieutenant-colonel, on reporting to 
Brigadier-General Alexander Smyth,* near Buffalo, 
October 4, 1812. 

* This officer, a native of Ireland, was a respectable member of the 
southwestern bar of Virginia, when made, in 1808, colonel of the new 
rifle regiment. He had long been a laborious and useful member of the 
legislature, and for several years before his death maintained the same 
character in Congress. As a general, though well read, brave, and hon- 
orable, he showed no talent for command, and made himself ridiculous on 
the Niagara frontier, by his proclamations calling for volunteers. His 



Assists in a Naval Enterprise. 55 

I was sent immediately to cover tlie temporary 
yard, behind Squaw Island, a little below Black Rock, 
where Lieutenant Elliott, of the navy, was fitting up 
certain lake craft for war purposes. This was the be- 
ginning of the squadron that won, under Commodore 
Perry, the following year, the splendid victory on Lake 
Erie. In a few days two British war vessels were dis- 
covered early one morning at anchor under the guns 
of Fort Erie, opposite to the harbor of BuiFalo. Lieu- 
tenant Elliott conceived the idea of capturing them, 
by surprise and boarding, just before daylight the fol- 
lowing morning, and applied to the lieutenant-colonel 
for a detachment of troops to aid in the enterprise. 
Captain Nathan Towson, afterward much distinguish- 
ed, was accordingly detailed for that service, seconded 
by Adjutant Eoach, subsequently mayor of Philadel- 
phia. He (Towson) gallantly carried and saved the 
Caledonia, and Lieutenant Elliott carried the Detroit, 
formerly the United States' Brig Adams, surrendered 
by Hull. There being no wind, the latter vessel was 
swept by the current down the Niagara, and got 
aground on the British side of Squaw Island, where 

certificate on honor, late in life, that he had discovered the Key to the 

Apocalypse, was another extraordinary blunder. 



56 Success — Descends the Biver. 

she was abandoned by her captors, taken possession of 
by tlie enemy, and became the subject of a sharp cop- 
test during the day, between detachments of troops 
from both sides of the river. Finally she was burned 
by the Americans, as she could not be got aHoat. This 
was a busy day (October 8) with the lieutenant-colonel, 
both on the ishuid and mainland, and the first time 
that he was under the fire of the enemy. 

Three days later he moved down the river, under 
orders to report to IMajor-General Yan Rensselaer, 
the patroon of Albany, who commanded a camp at 
Lewiston, opposite to Queenstown, of some 1,500 vol- 
unteers, and three small detachments of regulars under 
Lieutenant-Colonels Fenwick and Christie, and Major 
Mullany. 

Late in the evening of the 1 2th, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Scott, learning, accidentally, at Schlosser, that a hos- 
tile movement was on foot from Lewiston, marched 
down in the night to claim for his battalion a part in 
the expedition. He was refused, because all arrange- 
ments were made and instructions given, placing Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Yan Rensselaer, the chief of the gen- 
eral's staff, at the head of the movement, and I, his 



Battle of Queenstown. 57 

senior, would not serve under any junior,* altliougli 
Fenwick, the senior of the three, had waived his rank. 
Christie was Scott's junior. As to the battalion of the 
latter, there were no boats fit for artillery carriages, 
and, indeed, as it turned out, not enough for the in- 
fantry previously designated. 

The object of the expedition was to storm the 
heights of Queenstown, occupied by a small garrison 
of the 49th British Foot, supported by hosts of Indians, 
and to hold the same as a door of entrance for the large 
invading army (of volunteers) that was soon to follow. 
In crossing, about daylight, the boats had to sustain a 
direct plunging fire from the battery on the heights, 
and also the flank fire of several forts near the village, 
below. Yan Kensselaer, badly wounded, scarcely stood 
on his feet at the point of landing ; Fenwick's boat, 
perforated with shots and half filled with water, drifted 
to the enemy's shore, when he, desperately wounded, 

* This refus'al was remembered by Colonel Van Rensselaer in the Whig 
Convention that met at Harrisburg in November, 1839, when Harrison, 
Clay, and Scott were in nomination for the presidency, and it was also re- 
membered that Scott had, in January, 1838, arrested the colonel's son at 
Schlosser, while attempting to invade Canada at the head of a body ot 
Americans. The New York delegation would have been unanimous lor 
Scott but for the colonel. 
3* 



58 Battle of Qaeenstown. 

was taken out with a detacLineut of men prisoners of 
war. Christie's boat was also maltreated and he slight- 
Ij wounded in the attempt to cross.* And now it was 
that Lieutenant-Colonel Scott — whose light batteries, 
commanded by Captains Towson and Barker, had par- 
tially' diverted the enemy's fire from our boats — was 
permitted, at liis repeated solicitation, to cross over 
and take command of our forces in conflict with the 
enemy. Fortunately, he made the passage, accom- 
panied only by Adjutant Roach, of his battalion, with 
but little hurt or damage. The heights and battery 
had been previously carried by detachments of the 6th 
Infantry, under Captain Machesney ; of the 13th, un- 
der Captains Wool, Armstrong, Ogilvie, and Malcomb ; 
one of the 23d, under Major Mullany ; a company 
of light artillery, under Captain James Gibson, sup- 
ported by Lieutenant Thomas B. Kaudolph, with one 
six-pounder and some New York militia. Captain 
"Wool had been disabled by a wound, in ascending the 
heights. Captain J. G. Totten, of the Engineers, was 
also with the troops, qualified and ready for any duty 
that might fall to him. It was a little before this time 

* He, however, subsequeutly joined Scott, and shared with him the 
fortunes of the day. 



Battle of Queenstown. 59 

that Major-Gen eral Brock, Lieutenant-Governor of 
Upper Canada, and tlie Secretary of the Province, 
Colonel McDonald, fell at the foot of the heights, 
while gallantly leading up from the mouth of the 
river a body of York volunteers, with a number of 
additional Indians. 

A pause ensued. The lieutenant-colonel rapidly 
reconnoitred the heights; took up a position for de- 
fence until joined by the great body of the forces re- 
maining in camp at Lewiston ; introduced himself and 
adjutant to his line of battle, and attempted to unspike 
the guns the enemy had left in the captured battery. 
While directing the latter operation the enemy's col- 
lected forces suddenly drove in our pickets, when regu- 
lars, volunteers, and Indians rushed upon our line of 
battle, which, intimidated, began to face about, and, 
in a moment would have been in full retreat, but that 
the lieutenant-colonel, running back from the battery, 
by storming and a free use of the sword, brought his 
whole line to face the enemy, and, in a charge, to drive 
him beyond reach. After an interval, a second attack 
was made with a like result. Returning again to the 
chosen position our forces were reformed, and stood 
impatiently awaiting the arrival of reenforcements 



60 Battle of Queenstown. 

from the other side of the river ; for the approach of 
a fresh column of the enemy from below could be 
plainly seen, under, as it proved, Brigadier-General 
8heatfe, on whom had devolved all the public func- 
tions of Brock. The new reenforcement of the enemy 
being also perceived by Major-General Yan Rensse- 
laer, he wrote to our commander on the Canada side : 
" I have passed through my camp. ]S^ot a regiment, 
not a company is willing to join you. Save yourselves 
by a retreat, if you can. Boats shall be sent to receive 
you." 

The disgrace of Hull's recent sm-render was deeply 
felt by all Americans. Those on Queenstown Heights, 
at the instance of their youthful commander, resolved, 
though with but little hope of success, to sustain the 
shock of the enemy, when, if beaten, the survivors 
might still seek an escape by means of the promised 
boats. The British commander approached with an 
awful tediousness, evidently supposing the small body 
in his view to be merely the advance guard of the 
Americans. At length the conflict came. The firings, 
on both sides, were deadly, and then followed a partial 
clash of bayonets. The Americans, by the force of 
overwlielming numbers were pushed from the heights 



Flags of Truce. 61 

toward the river, aiding themselves, in the steep de- 
scent, by means of brushwood and yielding saplings. 
One hundred and thirty-nine regulars, out of six hun- 
dred that had embarked in the morning, and two hun- 
dred and fifty-odd volunteers,* out of four hundred and 
fifty, reached the margin of the river. Here all were 
seized with despair. Ko boats had arrived ! Indeed, but 
a few that were serviceable remained, and General Yan 
Rensselaer could not force nor bribe oarsmen enough, 
among his men, to take one of tliem to their forlorn 
countrymen ! A surrender was inevitable. There was 
no time to lose. The enemy were gradually letting 
themselves down the precipice, which partially covered 
the Americans, near enough to render their fire efifec- 
tive. 

Two bearers of flags of truce had been despatched 
in succession to the British commander, but there was 
no return, and no cessation of hostilities. It was con- 

* This body of men, under Brigadier-General Wadeworth, supported 
by Colonel Stranahan, behaved with gallantry throughout the day. When 
Scott assumed the command he did not know that there was a general 
officer on the ground. The latter, in plain clothes, modestly made his 
rank known, and insisted on supporting Scott, which he did, with zeal and 
valor, in every combat. This Wadsworth (William) and his brother, 
James, were the great farmers on the Genesee Flats. 



C2 Surrender. 

eluded that they had been killed or captured by the 
Indians. Captains Totten and Gibson each volunteered 
to make a third attempt, but as to bear a flag had be- 
come a forlorn service, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott as- 
sumed the duty to himself, and took with him his 
gallant comrades, Totten and Gibson. Being uncom- 
monly tall and in a splendid uniform, it was thought 
his chance of being respected by the savages, who were 
under but little control, tlie best. The party had to 
pass down along the margin of the river some hun- 
dreds of yards to find an easy ascent. Several shots 
had been fired at them, before they turned up to the 
left, when two Indians (Captain Jacobs and young 
Brant, of whom more in the sequel), after firing, sprang 
from a covert and seized the party. A deadly combat 
impended ; but a detachment of regulars, headed by an 
oflicer, rushed to the rescue, and conducted the flag to 
the British commander, General Sheaffe. His first 
and second attempts to stop the Indian fire on the 
Americans under the precipice proving' unsuccessful. 
Lieutenant - Colonel Scott demanded to be escorted 
back to his countrymen, that he might share their fate. 
He was prevailed upon to await another trial, which 
succeeding, a formal surrender was made on terms 



Demagogues i/ii the Vohmtecrs. G3 

honorable to all parties, and the prisoners were put in 
march for the village of l^ewark (since Niagara), at the 
mouth of the river. 

Nothing could have been more painful than the 
position of Major-General Stephen Van Rensselaer* 
dm'ing the day of Queenstown. A citizen of undoubt- 
ed patriotism and valor, with a weight of moral char- 
acter verj rare — but without military experience — he 
found himself helpless in his camp, by the machina- 
tions in the ranks of demagogues opposed to the Ad- 
ministration and the war. These vermin, who infest 
all republics, boastful enough at home, no sooner 
found themselves in sight of the enemy than they 
discovered that the militia of the United States could 
not be constitutionally marched into a foreign coun- 
try ! f This pleasant doctrine to the faint hearted, 
soon found almost universal favor. The pure-minded 

* But distantly, if at all, related to the colonel, chief of his staif. 

\ What so perverse and mischievous as party frenzy in a republic ! I 
was made a prisoner at Queenstown, in a lawful and necessary war, because 
certain milit'a would not cross the Niagara to ray rescue. In the winters 
of ISST-'S, t.nd 1838-9, it cost me my utmost exertions, physical and 
mental, all along the British frontiers, from Lake Huron to Aroostook — to 
prevent our people from making uninvited, unlawful, and preposterous in- 
vasions of the conterminous Provinces. 



64 Prisoner of War. 

general took an early opportunity of retiring from the 
command of such troops. 

On reaching the village of Newark, the American 
officers were lodged in a small inn after being divested 
of their swords, which were temporarily stacked under 
the staircase in the entry. A strong guard was at 
hand, and sentries were posted. In a few minutes a 
servant said that there were persons at the front door 
who desired to see the tall American. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Scott, passing through several doors, found, on 
reaching the entry, that his visitors were the same two 
Indians met by him some hours before when bearing 
the flag of truce. Captain Jacobs, one of them, a man 
of uncommon stature and power, speaking but little 
English was interpreted by his companion, young 
Brant, the life of whose father has been published by 
the late W. L. Stone, Esq., of New York, in two vol- 
umes, octavo, a valuable contribution to the history of 
the French War, as called in America, but knoMTi in 
Europe as the Seven Years' War/ — to the War of 
American Independence ; and to many subsequent 
wars between the United States and the Nortliwest 
Indians, as well as to the last war between the United 
States and Great Britain. 



A Desperate Adventure. 6^ 

The professed object of these Indians was to see if 
they had not in the several combats of the day hit the 
prisoner before them — each alleging that he had de- 
liberately fired at him three or four times from no 
great distance. Their design, however, was no doubt 
sinister. All the sm'viving Indians were exceedingly 
exasperated at the severe loss their tribes had just 
sustained. Jacobs, accordingly, to begin the aflfray, 
seized the prisoner rudely by the arm and attempted 
to turn him round to examine his back. The savage 
was indignantly thrown against the wall, when both 
assailants, placing their hands on their knives and 
hatchets, exclaimed — " We kill you now ! " It was 
an awful moment for the assailed. There was no 
witness nor help at hand. The sentinel near the door, 
who had improperly admitted the Indians, was not 
in view, and perhaps indifferent as to consequences. 
God and his own stout heart must save the American 
from instant butchery. With one mighty spring he 
seized the hilt of a sword with an iron scabbard (easily 
drawn), then springing back he faced the enemy and 
occupied the narrow space between the staircase and 
the opposite wall, but far enough advanced to allow a 
free use of his sword over the depressed balustrade. 



GO Bescue — General Sheaffe. 

In tliis strong position lie conld not be attacked hy two 
assailants at once, and he was sure to fell the foremost, 
though lie might be assassinated by the second before 
he could recover his sword. At this critical moment 
— the parties standing at bay but in act to strike — 
Captain Coffin, nephew and aide-de-camp of General 
Sheaffe, entered to conduct some of the prisoners to 
the general's quarters where they were invited to dine. 
Tlie scene spoke for itself. The captain instantly seized 
Jacobs by the collar with one hand, holding a cocked 
pistol in the other. Botli Indians, with their weapons, 
now turned upon him, and the American closed in to 
slay the one left by the pistol. The gallant aide-de- 
camp had just time to call out — the guard! when a 
sergeant and squad rushed in and marched off the 
savages as prisoners. It required a strong escort to 
conduct the dinner guests in safety to and from the 
general's quarters, for the village swarmed with exas- 
perated Indians. 

At table, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott learned from 
General Sheaffe himself, that he was a native of Bos- 
ton, the son of a civil em/ploy e of the crown ; — that 
adopted, when a boy, by Lord Percy (afterward Duke 
of jSTorthuuiberland), then colonel of the 42d Foot, he 



Volunteers Paroled— Gen. Erodes Funeral. 67 

was sent to England for his education, and that the 
duke continued his patron through his whole military 
career. The general added, that although he had 
never owed allegiance to the United States, yet anx- 
ious to avoid engaging in hostilities with Americans, 
his countrymen by birth, he had early requested to 
be sent to some other theatre of war. For the Battle 
of Queenstown he was made a major-general and 
baronet, and as soon as practicable recalled to Europe. 
All volunteer officers and men, among the Ameri- 
can prisoners, were paroled and sent home. The regu- 
lars of every rank were retained and embarked for 
Quebec. Before sailing, the remains of General Brock 
were buried with all the honors of war, in a bastion of 
Fort George, at the upper edge of Newark. Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Scott, out of respect for the very high char- 
acter of the deceased, sent over a request to the Ameri- 
can fort (Niagara) opposite, to fire minute guns during 
the British solemnities, and thus there was a long-con- 
tinued roar of American and British cannon in honor 
of a fallen hero. 

In the following campaign (1813), Fort George was 
captured by the autobiographer, then colonel, and en- 
larged, in part, by him, according to a plan of the engi- 



68 Fort George. 

neer, Captain Totten. Great care was taken by both 
not to disturb the bastion in wliich the remains of Gen- 
eral Brock lay interred. A word more, in connection 
with the foregoing, may, perhaps, be pardoned. So late 
as 1860, a resident of New Jersey and the Highlands 
of New York ("W. E. Baldwin, Esq.), presented to the 
autobiographer the identical pistols (as is well estab- 
lished by respectable evidence) that were in General 
Brock's holsters at the time of his fall. His body, 
partly under his dead horse, was, for a time, in the 
possession of the Americans. (Arms of every kind, 
gorgets, sashes, and spurs are lawful trophies of war.) 



CHAPTEK YII. 

KINGSTON PEESCOTT MONTREAL QUEBEC SAILED FOR 

HOME — GUT OF CANSO WASHINGTON. 

The regular prisoners passed at Kingston from ves- 
sels of war to rowboats, and under a strong guard 
descended the St. Lawrence, marcliing around tlie 
more dangerous rapids.* At Prescott, opposite to 

* A singular rudeness was experienced in passing around the Long 
Saut, on the edge of a Caledonian settlement — all Catholics. Their priest, 
attracted by the name and rank of Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, reproached 
him severely as a traitor to George III. Perceiving his sacerdotal charac- 
ter, a condescending explanation and reply was given, without effect. In 
182*7, Major-General Scott being at Buffalo, on board of a government 
steamer about to ascend the lakes, her master asked permission to re- 
ceive in the cabin, for his benefit, a bishop and two priests. It was grant- 
ed. General Scott at once discovered in the prelate his reviler at the Long 
Saut. Suppressing the discovery he invited the party to his separate 
table, and did his best to overwhelm the Right Reverend gentleman with 
hospitality and courtesy — a Christian's revenge. 



7U Prescott — ]!s6ble Conduct of a Prwateer. 

Ogdensburg, I was taken into the quarters of the com- 
mander of the post, Coh)nel Pearson, who had just 
arrived from England. Expecting a night attack by 
the militia, at Ogdensburg, opposite, the commander 
slept but little, and that on the prisoner's pallet — two 
blankets and a cloak, Pearson's own baggage not 
being up. No one exceeded this gallant officer in 
courtesy and amiability. To soothe his prisoner, de- 
pressed by his condition, and disappointed at not being 
rescued by the militia at Ogdensburg, he told the story 
of his own recent capture and noble treatment by an 
American privateer. On board of a transport ship, 
with his young ^vife, he fell in with the , Cap- 
tain , and being without heavy guns, surren- 
dered after the first fire. Captain , with a 

party, boarded the prize, when learning that Mrs. 
Pearson was thrown into a state of premature labor, 
he placed a sentinel at the cabin door, and left to the 
colonel an absolute control over all within it — giving 
such aid as was called for. The colonel was also de- 
sired to mark everything that belonged to him, with 
his name, and assured that all should be held sacred 
as private property. In sight of an American port, 
the prize was recaptm-ed and taken to Halifax, where 



Courtesies and Discourtesies. 71 

the colonel acquitted himself of the debt of liberality 
by his conduct to the American prize crew,* 

The Queenstown prisoners experienced much cour- 
tesy from other British commanders : from the old and 
infirm Colonel Leftbridge, who was at the head of the 
guard in the boats down to Montreal; from Major- 
General Glasgow, the commander of Quebec, a fine old 
soldier, and others. The remarkable exception was in 
the Governor-General of the Provinces — Lieuten ant- 
General, Sir George Prevost — who, being of an Ameri- 
can family, behaved like a renegade in causing the 
prisoners to be marched, on their arrival at Montreal, 
along the front of its garrison, drawn, up in line of bat- 
tle, and by slights and neglects which excited contempt 
and loathing. As a soldier, he was signally disgraced, 
subsequently, at Sackett's Harbor and Plattsburg. 

A scene occurred, at Quebec, respecting the Ameri- 
can prisoners, which led to a correspondence, to legis- 
lation, and other results of great national interest and 
importance. The story, though told in Mansfield's 

* At th€! Battle of Chippewa, in 1814, Colonel Pearson commanded the 
right wing of the British army, and subsequently was, as a general officer, 
Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar. He, up to his death, remained the friend 
of his prisoner (for a night) at Prescott. 



73 Sequestration of Prisoners. 

well-written life of the autobiographer, on notes and 
documents supplied by the latter, is necessarily repro- 
duced in this place, but with some corrections and 
additions. 

The Americans being, November 20, 1812, paroled 
and embarked for Boston, a commission of several 
persons came on board, under the instructions of Sir 
George Prevost to sequester and to retain, as traitors, 
every prisoner, who, judging by speech or other evi- 
dence, might appear to have been born a British sub- 
ject. Lieutenant-Colonel Scott being engaged in the 
cabin, heard a commotion on deck, when liurrying up, 
he found that twenty-odd of his men had already been 
selected for trial, and all much grieved and alarmed. 
He instantly stopped further examinations by com- 
manding absolute silence on the part of the prisoners ; 
had an altercation with the commissioners ; explained 
to the sequestered the reciprocal obligation of allegi- 
ance and protection; assured them that the United 
States' Government would not fail to look to their 
safety, and in case of their punishment, as was threat- 
ened, to retaliate amply. Not another man was added 
to those previously selected, then, nor on any subsequent 
occasion. 



Hostages and Retaliation. 73 

To finish this story without regard to chronology : 
the lieutenant-colonel arrived at Washington (where 
he found himself exchanged) in January, 1813, on the 
evening of a reception at the President's. The warm 
greeting given him was scarcely over, when he, with 
some animation, mentioned to the President the case 
of the sequestered prisoners. Several members of Con- 
gress eagerly listened to the narrative, when instruc- 
tions were given to report the whole case, officially, to 
the Secretary of War. Hence the following letter, 
dated January 13, 1813 : 

Lieutenamjtr Colonel Scott to the Secretary of War* 
"Sm: 

" I think it my duty to lay before the Department 
that, on the arrival at Quebec of the American prison- 
ers of war surrendered at Queenstown, they were mus- 
tered and examined by British officers appointed to 
that duty, and every native-born of the United King- 
doms of Great Britain and Ireland sequestered, and 
sent on board a ship of war then in the harbor. The 
vessel in a few days thereafter sailed for England, with 

* American State Papers, vol. iii., p. 634, as published under an act 
of Congress. 

4 



74- ITostayes and Retaliation. 

tliese prisoners on bourd. Between fifteen and twen- 
ty* were thus taken from us, natives of Ireland, sev- 
eral of wlioni were known by tlieir platoon officers to 
l)e naturalized citizens of the United States, and others 
to have been long residents within the same. One in 
particular, whose name has escaped me, besides having 
complied with all the conditions of our naturalization 
laws, was represented by his officers to have left a wife 
and five cliikh'en, all of them boiTi within the State of 
jS^ew York. 

" I distinctly understood, as well from the officers 
who came on board the prison ship for tlie above pur- 
poses, as from others with whom I remonstrated on 
this subject, that it was the detemiination of the Brit- 
ish Government, as expressed through Sir George Pre- 
vost, to punish every man whom it might subject to its 
power, found in arms against the British king con- 
trary to his native allegiance." 

This report was promptly communicated to Con- 
gress, which, followed up by the solicitations of the 
writer, led to the passage of the act, March 3, 1813, 

* TluTC were, in faet, twenty-tlircc, as stated in the text. 



Hostages and Retaliation. 75 

"vesting in the President of the United States the 
power of retaliation in certain cases." 

It so chanced that in a few months the writer of 
that report, at the capture of Fort George (May 27), 
made a great number of prisoners, when, as adjutant- 
o-eneral and chief of the stafi', with the rank of colonel, 
he selected and confined an equal number of the cap- 
tured Englishmen, to abide the fate of the Americans 
sent to England for trial. 

Earl Bathxirst to Sir George Prevost."^ 

" Downing Street, August 12, 1813. 

" SiK : 

" I have had the honor of receiving your despatch 
No. %Q, of the 6th of June, enclosing a letter addressed 
to your excellency by Major-General Dearborn. In 
this letter it is stated, that the American commissary 
of prisoners in London, had made it known to his Gov- 
ernment that twenty-three soldiers of the 1st, 6th, and 
13th regiments of United States infantry, made prison- 
ers, had been sent to England and held in close con- 
finement as British subjects ; and that Major-General 
Dearborn had received instructions from his Govern- 

* American State Papers, vol. iii., pp. 640, 641. 



76 Hostages and Retaliation, 

ment to put into close confinement twenty-three Brit- 
ish soldiers, to be kept as hostages for the safe-keeping 
and restoration, in exchange, of the soldiers of the 
United States who had been sent, as above stated, to 
England; and General Dearborn apprises you that, 
in obedience to these instructions, he had put twenty- 
three British soldiers in close confinement, to be kept 
as hostages. 

" The persons refeiTcd to in this letter were soldiers 
serving in the American army, taken prisoners at 
Queenstown, and sent home by you, that they might 
be disposed of according to the pleasure of His Royal 
Highness the Prince Begent, they having declared 
themselves to be British-born subjects. Your excel- 
lency lias been directed to send home the necessary 
evidence upon this point, and they are held in custody 
to undergo a legal trial. 

" You will lose no time in communicating to Major- 
Gen eral Dearborn that you have transmitted home a 
copy (jf his letter to you, and that you are, in conse- 
quence, instructed distinctly to state to him, that you . 
have received the commands of His Royal Highness 
the Prince Regent, forthwith to put in close confine- 
ment forty-six American ofiicers and non-commissioned 



Hostages and Retaliation. 77 

officers, to be held as hostages for the safe-keeping of 
the twenty-three British soldiers stated to have been 
put in close confinement by order of the American 
Government ; and you will at the same time apprise 
him, that if any of the said British soldiers shall suffer 
death by reason that the soldiers now under confine- 
ment here have been found guilty, and that the known 
law, not only of Great Britain, but of every indepen- 
dent state under hke circumstances, has been in conse- 
quence executed, you have been instructed to select out 
of the American officers and non-commissioned officers 
whom you shall have put into close confinement, as 
many as may double the number of Britisli soldiers 
who shall so unwarrantably have been put to death, 
and cause such officers and non-commissioned officers 
to suffer death immediately. 

" And you are further instructed to notify to Major- 
General Dearborn, that the commanders of His Majes- 
ty's fleets and armies on the coasts of America, have 
received instructions to prosecute the war with mimiti- 
gated severity against all cities, towns, and villages, 
belonging to the United States, and against the inhab- 
itants thereof, if, after this communication shall have 
been duly made to Major-General Dearborn, and a 



78 Bitter English Feeling in America. 

reasonable time given for its being transmitted to the 
American Government, that Government shall mi- 
happilj not be deterred from putting to death any of 
the soldiers who now are, or who may hereafter be, 
kept as hostages, for the purposes stated in the letter 
trom Major-General Dearborn. 

" I have the honor to be, 

" BATHURST." 

The haughty tone of this letter may be accounted 
for by remembering the disasters of the Russian cam- 
paign, in which Napoleon lost by frost in the retreat 
from Moscow, the flower of his army ; to the vic- 
tories of Wellington in the Peninsula, which opened 
exhausted France to invasion, and to the assembling, 
at the moment, of the elite of the armies of continen- 
tal Europe upon Dresden, to give the coup de grace to 
the falling emperor. 

Much of that bitterness of English feeling prevailed, 
at the time, in one of the American parties. The Hon- 
orable Alexander C. Hanson, M. C, from Maryland, in 
a speech in the House of Representatives, February 14, 
1814, after remarking that " the impressment of Brit- 
ish seamen from American vessels was the vital point " 



DenunGiation of the War. 79 

in the war — next echoed the sentiments of Lord Ba- 
thurst, thns : 

* " Mr. Chairman — upon this question of impress- 
ment, allegiance, protection, and naturalization, which 
has been connected with it, gentlemen here may fret, 
rail, and argue, until doomsday. They may set up 
new-fangled doctrines, and deny old and established 
principles, but as far as depends on the opinions of the 
ablest jurists, and the practice of the oldest regular 
governments, the point in controversy is long ago set- 
tled. It is immutably determined. 

[Here he cited " the fundamental maxim of the law 
of England " — " perpetual allegiance " — " once a sub- 
ject, always a subject."] 

" Now, sir," continued Mr. Hanson, " I am pre- 
pared to go a step farther than has been deemed neces- 
sary from the actual case presented to our consider- 
ation. I say, that an Englishman, naturalized or not 
by our laws, if found in arms against his native coun- 
try, is a traitor by the laws of his native country. I 
do not confine the position to British subjects natural- 
ized here, and made captives within the dominions of 

* Carpenter's Select American Speeches, vol. ii., pp. 4:25—431. 



80 Denunciation of the War. 

their sovereign, where the arm of protection cannot be 
extended ; but, if the armies of the enemy crossed the 
line, and invaded us in turn, and made prisoner a 
Briton found in arms against Britain, he is as much a 
traitor as if taken a prisoner in the heart of the British 
empire. 

" Such men are traitors in the legal, true sense of 
the word, and ought to be treated as such. The good 
of society and the safety of government require it. If, 
to protect them, we resort to a bloody, ferocious, exter- 
minating system of retaliation, we shed the innocent 
blood of our own countrymen. 

" I say, then, without reserve, if the President pro- 
ceeds in the ruthless, bloody business he has com- 
menced, he is answerable, here and hereafter, for all 
the American lives wantonly sacrificed. Posterity will 
pronomice him guilty, and heap maledictions upon his 
name. 

* * * " When the party contests < f the day are 
forgotten; when the passions engendered by political 
strife have subsided; when reason shall resume her 
throne, and the present generation is swept into the 
silent tomb, those who live after us will pronounce a 



Retaliatory Measures Successful. 81 

judgment upon the chief actors in this tragedy of 
blood and murder." 



These were dire denunciations of " the chief actors 
in [the] tragedy of blood and murder." Yet Major- 
General Scott, " the head and front of [that] offend- 
ing" — when in the act of embarking at ITew York, 
for Em'ope, July 9, 1815, had the happiness to meet on 
a pier, in the East River, just from an English prison, 
twenty-one of the identical men taken from him at 
Quebec — the other two liaving died natural deaths! 
It was thus, and not by any subsequent diplomacy of 
the American Department of State, as has sometimes 
been claimed, that Great Britain was forced to yield 
the principle, " once her subject, always her subject " — 
on which the soldiers were seized, and hundreds of 
sailors impressed, out of American ships. 

November 20, 1812, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, with 
the remainder of the regular prisoners taken with him 
at Queenstown, sailed from Quebec for Boston, at the 
beginning of a snow storm. Such were the known 
dangers in the navigation of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
at that late season, that the ship could not have been 
insured at a premium of less than fifty per cent, of her 



S2 Bad Ti/me in the Gulf of /St. Lawrence. 

value. Tliis cartel (Bi'itish ship) was, however, staimcli 
and well commanded. After being blown about at the 
mercy of a succession of gales, she, at the end of twen- 
ty-three days, entered the Gut of Canso — a natm-al 
canal, separating Xova Scotia from tlie Isle of Cape 
Breton — and came to anchor in a cove of the latter. 
Both shores were mountainous and uninhabited for an 
indefinite distance, except a single farmhouse in a small 
valley, opposite to the cove and near the water. This 
was occupied by Mr. Pain, a second Robinson Crusoe. 
He had sailed from Boston in a smack for the banks 
of Newfoundland and other fishing grounds, in 1774, 
before the outbreak of the Revolution, Having made 
up the cargo in the Gut of Canso, Pain begged his 
companions to let him remain till the return of the 
party the following season. They assisted in building 
him a liut, and left with him a good supply of personal 
and bed clothes, some axes and other tools, a gun, with 
ammunition, fishing tackle, and such other, stores as 
could be spared — together with a Bible, " Paradise Lost," 
and " The Pilgrim's Progress." Prayers were said at 
parting, and the smack sailed for home. This was the 
last that our adventurer saw of " the human face di- 
vine," till the end of nine or ten years. The Revolu- 



A Second Rohinson Crusoe. 8f3 

tionary "War supervened. There was no more fishing 
and curing of lish by Americans on those shores — the 
Gut of Canso at that period not being navigated except 
bj vessels driven into it by stress of weather. There 
was no road and no trail across the mountains to any 
settlement whatever. 

For the first year, and, indeed, till his supplies be- 
gan to fail him, Mr. Pain, then young, did not lament 
his condition. But when the second and third seasons 
came, and again and again tliere was no return of liis 
friends, it seemed evident they had abandoned him ; — 
his spirits drooped, and he was in danger of being lost 
in despair. Like Alexander Selkirk in similar circum- 
stances, he might have exclaimed : 

" I am monarch of all I survey, 

My right there is none to dispute ; 
From the centre all round to the sea, 
I am lord of the fowl and the brute. 

" solitude ! where are the charms, 
That sages have seen in thy face .' 
Better dwell in the midst of alarms, 
Than reign in this horrible place. 

" I am out of humanity's reach, 
I must finish my journey alone. 
Never hear the sweet music of speech — 
I start at the sound of my own. 



84 Life vn Solitude. 

" The beasts that roam over the plain, 
My form with indifference see ; 
They are so unacquainted with man, 
Their tameness is shocking to me." 

But man is the most flexible and pliable of all ani- 
mals. According to his own account, Mr. Pain soon 
learned to relish food without salt ; the moose deer and 
fleecy goat were abundant, furnishing him with both 
food and raiment, and which he contrived to entrap 
after his powder and shot were exhausted. So, too, in 
respect to wornout hooks and lines : these were re- 
placed by bones and slips of skins, so that there was no 
want of the " finny prey." By the fifth year he began 
to like this new life as well as at first. His books were 
more than a solace to him, and the autobiographer can 
testify that he could accurately recite, from memory, 
entire chapters of the Bible, and many of the books of 
" Paradise Lost." Finally, when, at the end of the war, 
his old master in a smack came in search of him or his 
remains, he had become so attached to this new mode 
of existence that he refused to return to his native soil. 
A good supply of necessaries was again left with him. 
His little property at home was invested in cattle, 
with materials for a small house, some furniture, etc. 



Scurvy — Gut of Canso. 85 

— all of which were sent out to him, with an old sister, 
a farm laborer, and a lad — a relative. Before 1812, 
some new connections and laborers had joined him, 
and he had become a thrifty farmer.* 

The provisions for the paroled soldiers, by the neg- 
lect of the British commissariat, proved to be bad. 
The salt beef and pork had become rusty, and the 
bread worm-eaten. This food had been on board, per- 
haps, a twelvemonth, and a part of the time in a hot 
climate. The scurvy soon appeared among the sol- 
diers. Lieutenant-Colonel Scott threw in his personal 
stores (fresh beef, bread, onions, and potatoes), too 
small a stock to produce much benefit. But a fine ox, 
some sheep, and a hundred bushels of potatoes, bought 
of Farmer Pain, proved a godsend, stopping the disease 
at once.' 

* It is" not known that any memoir or notice of this interesting adven- 
turer has ever been published. 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

COLONEL AND ADJUTANT - GENERAL — FORT GEORGE — 00- 
DENSBURG HOOP-POLE CREEK — FRENCH MILLS. 

It has already been stated that Lieutenant-Colonel 
Scott, on arriving at Washington in January, 1813, 
found himself exchanged. After a short interval, he 
was ordered to Philadelphia to take command of 
another battalion of his regiment (a double one — twen- 
ty companies) then nearly ready for the field. In the 
month of March he was appointed adjutant-general, 
with the rank of colonel, and promoted to the colonel- 
cy of his regiment about the same time. He continued 
to hold the tAvo commissions for several months, occa- 
sionally quitting the staff for hours or a day to com- 
mand his own and other troops in battles, skirmishes, 



Niaga/ra — Led the Forlorn Hojoe. 87 

and forrays. With his battalion he had joined the 
army under the command of Major-General Dearborn, 
on the Niagara frontier, early in May, and, as the chief 
of his staff, first organized the service among all the 
staff departments, several of which were new and 
others miknown in the United States since the Revo- 
lutionary War. In this labor he was greatly aided by 
an early edition of Theibault's Manuel General du Ser- 
vice des Mats-Majors Generauoc, etc. 

The first general movement of this army had for its 
object, by the capture of Fort George, to make the left 
bank of the Niagara the basis of further operations. 
That work, on the river side, had been much damaged, 
May 26, by the batteries of Captains Towson and 
Archer (of Scott's regiment) at Youngstown, opposite. 
Accordingly, on the next day, an embarkation com- 
menced from a creek three miles east of the Niagara, 
some time before daylight. Colonel Scott led the ad- 
vance guard or forlorn hope, composed of a battalion 
of his own regiment acting as grenadiers, and a small- 
er one, under Lieutenant-Colonel McFeely of the 22d 
Infantry, and was followed by field batteries under 
Colonel Moses Porter; Boyd's, Chandler's, and Win- 
der's brigades, and a rear guard (or reserve) under 



88 Descent on Lake Shore. 

Colonel Macomb — making a force of about four thou- 
sand seven hundred men. The point of descent was 
the lake shore, a half mile (or more) west of the mouth 
of the river. Commodore Chauncey's fleet stood in 
as near as practicable, and by its fire, kept the enemy, 
under Brigadier-General Yincent, back a little, till the 
Americans, when near the shore, became a shield against 
that fire. 

The wind was fresh and the surf high. Captain 
Perry, an old friend of Scott, who, from Lake Erie, 
had joined Cliauncey as a volunteer, for the day, kind- 
ly took Scott in his gig and piloted the boats of the 
advance guard through the surf and the brisk fire of 
the enemy. The beach was narrow and the bank pre- 
cipitous — ti"om seven to eleven feet high, afibrding, 
generally, but slight foothold to climbers. The first 
attempt at ascent was repulsed by the bayonet, and 
Scott, among others, tumbled backward. Major-Gen- 
eral Dearborn, a fine old soldier, saw, from the fleet, 
the fall, and honored the supposed loss of the chief of 
his staff" with a tear. At the second attempt the bank 
was scaled — with a loss of every flfth man killed or 
wounded ; the line of battle w^as reformed, and a furi- 
ous charge made that drove more than twice the num- 



Battle of Fort George. 89 

ber of the enemy out of sight. This could not have 
been done but for the intimidation caused by the fleet 
of rowboats seen following in Scott's wake. Porter 
and Boyd soon landed. Not a horse accompanied the 
expedition ; but Scott, mounted on the charger of a 
colonel, a prisoner, had, in pursuing the enemy, to 
thread the village circumspectly, which gave time for 
Colonel Miller of the 6th Infantry (Boyd's brigade) to 
unite with the advance. Passino; Port George, now 
untenable and still under the fire of the American bat- 
teries at Toungstown, two fugitives were observed who 
had just escaped from the fort. Scott, singly, charged 
and made them throw down their arms. They in- 
formed him that nearly all the garrison had, fifteen 
minutes before, joined the enemy's retreat up the river, 
and that the few men remaining were spiking the guns 
and applying slow matches to the bastion magazines. 
Desirous to save these, he ordered that Captains Hind- 
man and Stockton's companies (of his own regiment) 
should join him at the fort, and that the remainder of 
the column should continue the pursuit. At his near 
approach, one of the magazines exploded. Horse and 
rider being both struck by splinters, the latter was 
thrown to the ground, with a broken collar bone and 



90 Ca])ture of the Fort. 

some bniises. Nevertheless, aided by his two prison- 
ers — the detachment from the column being nearly up 
— Scott was the first to enter the fort. The last of the 
garrison escaped at the same moment. Ilindman and 
Stockton flew to the two unexploded magazines just in 
time to pluck away the burning matches, while Scott 
took the colors with his own hands.* 

In a moment he was again in the saddle, and re- 
joined his pursuing column already in the midst of the 
enemy's stragglers. Opposite to the Five Mile Meadow 
(that distance from the mouth of the riv^er) Scott met 
Colonel Burn (his senior colonel), who had just crossed 
over with a troop of his Light Dragoons. Another 
troop was approaching in boats, and Scott agreed to 
wait for it, as Bum conceded to him the command. 
This enabled Brigadier-General Boyd personally to 
overtake and order the whole pursuing force back to 
Fort George, against the remonstrances of Scott, who 
assured him (as he had replied to a like order pre- 
viously received from Major-General Lewis) that, with 

* The down-haul halliard of the colors had been shot away by the 
opposite batteries. Hence the retreating garrison had nearly cut down 
the flagstaff, when obhged to fly, leaving the axe in position. With this 
in his hand Scott soon brought to the ground the coveted trophy. 



Pursuit of the Enemy 8to2)jped. 91 

the reenforcement of the Light Dragoons, he could cap- 
ture the disorganized army then less than a mile ahead 
of him. Boyd, acting nnder instructions, insisted on 
an immediate return ! And thus terminated the bat- 
tle of Fort George, May 27, 1813.* 

Colonel Scott now limited himself mainly to his 
staff duties. The disaster of the 6th of June, at Stony 
Creek, resulting in the capture of the American gen- 
erals. Chandler and Winder, though the enemy was re- 
pulsed, caused Major-General Dearborn to send up his 
second in rank, Lewis, ^vith Scott, to that headless 
army f — a renewed attack upon it being imminent. 

* Early in the pursuit (near the lake) Scott came up with a wounded 
colonel, just made a prisoner, and after giving directions for his safety 
and comfort, borrowed the charger before mentioned. Calling to restore 
the property, and to provide for his wants, the Englishman handsomely 
observed : " We have reversed our relative positions of the last autumn. 
Allow me, in the way of apology, to say that you can now see the Falls 
of Niagara in all their splendor " — alluding to what he had said to Scott 
when the latter was the prisoner, viz. : that Scott, who had said some- 
thing on the subject — must win a great battle before he could have that 
enjoyment. This sarcastic remark was sharply rebuked at the time, both 
by the offended party and the British general, Sheaffe, at whose table it 
was made. 

f This extraordinary result irresistibly brings to mind the siege of 
Cremona in 1702. Prince Eugene, by a singular stratagem, entered that 
city in the night, at the head of a competent force ; but was finally driven 
out by the gallant French garrison, without other loss than that of their 



92 Stony Creek Disaster — Scott to the Bear Guard. 

On the capture of Chandler and Winder, letters 
came down from that army to headquarters, at Fort 
George, requesting that Colonel Scott might he sent 
up to command it. But as he arrived with a major- 
general (Lewis) and a retreat was soon ordered from 
below, the general cry was heard — Scott to the rear 
gua/rd! That post of honor was given him, and the 
march of forty-odd miles, though flanked by hostile 

commarder, Marsl al Due de Villeroi, who being captured and secured 
at the very entrance of the Austrians, gave the garrison its triumph. 
Madame de Stael, on the subject of Kussian despotism, wittily said it was 
tempered and checked by the salutary practice of assassination — applied 
to odious czars. So among the French, before the Revolution, with their 
keen percci)tion of the witty and the ludicrous : a bon-mot, a jeu d'esprit, 
anonymously circulated, often rebuked and held in defiance the meditated 
designs and absolutism of the court. Villeroi, the foster-brother and only 
acknowledged favorite Louis XIV ever had, was made to fool this power, 
wheu laid on the shelf and rendered harmless for a time by the following 
epigram : 

" Francais, rcndez grace h, Bellone. 

Votre bonheur est sans egal ; 

Vous avez conserve Cremone 

Et perdu votre general." 

Winder's was a hard fate, both at Stony Creek and (next year) at Bla- 
densburg. With the elements of a good soldier, he, like Colonel Drayton, 
though poor, sacrificed to patriotism an extensive law practice, which was 
not recovered after the war. It is a misfortune to begin a new career 
with too much rank, or rather, too late in life. 



Gajpture of Boerstler — Recall of Dearborn. 93 

Indians on one side, and by the British fleet on the 
other, was uninterrupted. 

Another disaster to our arms soon followed. Colonel 
Boerstler, June 23, 1813, was detached with some six 
hundred men, of all arms, to attack a post at the Beaver 
Dams, near Queenstown, on the road thence to the head 
of Lake Ontario. The same day the whole of this 
force, falHng into an ambuscade, was captured. 

These misadventures deeply affected the health and 
spirits of Major-General Dearborn — who, before, had 
been much disordered by the lake fever. An order of 
recall soon reached him from the War Department. 
The officers of his army, remembering his high moral 
worth, his patriotism, valor, and military distinction at 
Bunker Hill, Quebec, Monmouth, Yorktown, etc., etc., 
deeply sympathized with their venerable chief, and re- 
quested Colonel Scott to be, at the moment of separa- 
tion, the organ of their sentiments. A short, emphatic 
valedictory did much to soothe a wounded heart. 

Major-General Lewis having been previously sent 
to Sackett's Harbor, the command on the Niagara basis 
now devolved on Brigadier-General Boyd — courteous, 
amiable, and respectable, as a subordinate ; but vacil- 
lating and imbecile, beyond all endurance, as a chief 



94 Boyd in Command — Inactivity. 

under high responsibilities. Fortunately, the British 
general-in-chief, then Major-General de RottenLurg, 
and his second, Vincent, were equally wanting in en- 
terprise and execution. The Secretary of War, General 
Armstrong, a great military critic and judge of charac- 
ter, instructed Boyd to intrench his army, and not to 
seek a conflict, but await the arrival of Major-General 
Wilkinson * from New Orleans. 

Thus the array of Niagara, never less than four 
thousand strong, stood fixed, in a state of ignominy for 
some two months, under Boyd, within five miles of an 
unintrenched enemy with never more than three thou- 
sand five hundred men ! 

This long inactivity was slightly enlivened by two 
night demonstrations of the enemy, in which some of 
the American pickets were driven in ; by one afiair 
between Indians of the opposing armies, and by a 
dozen or more skirmishes, growing out of foraging 
operations, several of which turned out rather serious 
affairs. In most of these, Scott, without always seek- 
ing the service, either commanded originally, or was, 

* The selection of this unprincipled imbecile was not the blunder of 
Secretary Armstrong. Wilkinson, whose orders were dated March 10, 
1813, contrived not to reach Fort George till the 4th of September! 



Foraging — Indian Affairs. 95 

at tlie first shot, sent out with reenforcements, when, 
by seniority, the command devolved upon him. For- 
tunately, though always attacked, he never lost a pris- 
oner or a wagon, and always returned with a loaded 
train. These successes in la jpetiU guerre came near 
fixing upon him the character of a partisan officer, 
whereas it was his ambition to conduct sieges and com- 
mand in open fields, serried lines, and columns. 

It is not remembered that the American friendly 
Indians were allowed to take part in that war except 
on the one occasion alluded to above. A little while 
before his recall, Major-General Dearborn assembled, 
in council, the Seneca and other Indian chiefs, residing 
near Buffalo, when they were invited to furnish a few 
hundred auxiliaries in the existing campaign, to serve 
the purposes of watching the legions of British Indians, 
of interpreting their movements and intentions, and 
specially to prevail upon them to return to their native 
wilds — leaving the white belligerents, alone, to kill 
each other in the settlement of their own peculiar 
quarrel. Scott opened the council on the part of the 
general, and was replied to by Red Jacket — the great 
orator as well as warrior among the red men. He was 
perfectly ready for all enterprises of hazard promising 



96 Indicm Adwenl/urc. 

distinction ; but the sarcastic licatlien — all the other 
principal chiefs were Christians — could not forbear, in- 
terpreting the invitation in his own way — help us to 
heat the British — producing a contradictory letter from 
General Dearborn, written early in 1812, as Secretary 
of War, in which neutrality, in the approaching hos- 
tilities, was strictly enjoined on the part of all Ameri- 
can Indians, Nevertheless, the auxiliaries under the 
Fanner's Brother, the venerable head chief; Pollard, 
the leader of the Christian party ; and Red Jacket, the 
leader of the heatliens, all promptlj^ joined the army at 
Fort George. They contrived several interviews wuth 
many chiefs of the British Indians ; but failed to per- 
suade them to a pacific course. The Farmer's Brother, 
in the name of all his people, then solicited permission, 
before returning home, to attack one of tlie hostile In- 
dian {;amps a little distance apart from the British 
regulars. This was granted, though the Americans, 
intrenched, were now under the injunction to stand on 
the defensive ; and Scott, as adjutant-general, was de- 
sired to instruct the Indians not to kill prisoners, and 
not to scalp the dead. Pollard and the other Chris- 
tians readily acquiesced, and demanded cords and 
strings for tying their captives. Red Jacket and his 



Indian Success. 9Y 

pagan followers asked to be similarly prepared for suc- 
cess, when all set forward in high spirits, and to the 
great amusement of the army. A battalion of infantry 
had been advanced halfway to the enemy's camp, some 
three miles off, to serve as a shield and support, in case 
the gallant assailants should be repulsed and hotly pur- 
sued. Passing the battalion, the Indians — not under- 
standing injunctions not to iight, in time of war ! 
called out — Conw along j lohat ! are you afraid? 
Conceive the deep humiliation ; for the commander 
of the support was the distinguished Major William 
Gumming — brave, intellectual, and of sensibilities 
almost morbid. 

In the American camp, all were on the tiptoe of 
anxiety and expectation ; but soon sharp cracks of 
rifles were heard, followed by a more painful silence. 
There was not an officer, nor a man who would not 
have been 'happy, if permitted, to rush out of the in- 
trenchments to support his red friends. In thirty 
minutes, however, shouts of triumph began to approach 
nearer and nearer. The enemy's (Indian) camp had 
been surprised, many of his red men killed or wounded, 
and sixteen made prisoners. When these were seen, 

each closely pinioned and led by a string, the novel 
5 



98 Quits the Staff— JEmharhs with Chauncey. 

spectacle produced such roars of delight as to be heard 
from camp to camp. 

Finding his position at headquarters, for the reasons 
ah'eady given, disgusting, Scott, about midsummer, re- 
signed his adjutant-generalcy, and limited himself to 
the command of troops — his own regiment and others. 

Early in September it was determined to make a 
joint expedition against Burlington Heights, in rear 
of the British army, where it was supposed would be 
found large magazines of materiel and otlier important 
stores, guarded by a limited force ; and Scott, with a 
competent detachment, was embarked on board of 
Commodore Chauucey's fleet for their capture. A 
landing and search were made, but nothing of value 
was there. It being now certain that the enemy's 
grand dejM of supplies was at York (Toronto), the 
capital of Upper Canada — captured and evacuated by 
General Dearborn in the preceding April — Chauncey 
and Scott resolved to make a second descent upon that 
place. The hitter, with the land troops and marines, 
debarked and drove out the garrison after a sharp 
rencounter — the fortifications had not been renewed; 
and formed a cordon of pickets and sentinels, while 
the commodore emptied the public storehouses of their 



Second Capture of Little Y&t'Jc. 99 

abundant contents. Learning tliat there were many 
political offenders confined in the jail, Scott caused 
them (some were Americans) to be sent on board the 
fleet ; but gave special instructions to leave all felons — 
persons charged with offences against morals — to abide 
their fate. 

On reembarking, he learned that some of the sailors 
had brought off from the public storehouses a few 
trunks, belonging to British officers — the contents of 
which — uniforms, etc., he now saw flaunting about the 
decks. Causing the broken and emptied trunks to be 
brought to him, he found left in one. marked with the 
name of General Sheafi'e — a mass of public and private 
papers. The latter, unread, were carefully separated, 
and sent to the British headquarters. A sailor, who 
witnessed the investigation, showed the colonel the 
miniature of a beautiful lady, set in gold, taken out of 
another trunk that had upon it the name of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Harvey. It was concluded that this must be 
the likeness of the lieutenant-colonel's young bride. 
Colonel Scott bought it of the sympathizing sailor for 
a small sum, and sent it to the gallant husband, with 
Sheaffe's private papers.* 

* It was Harvey that surprised and captured Chandler and Winder at 



100 Left hy hoth Armies at Fort George. 

On the arrival of Major-General Wilkinson at Fort 
George, September 4, 1813, Scott, as an official obliga- 
tion, called upon liim and gave assurance that he should 
continue to execute, with zeal and alacrity, all duties 
that might be assigned to him. In less than a month 
(October 2) Wilkinson and nearly the whole regular 
force on the Niagara moved down Lake Ontario in the 
further prosecution of the campaign. Scott was left in 
command of Fort George, with some seven huncb-ed 
regulars, and a detachment of Colonel Swift's regiment 
of militia. One entire side of the fort — then under- 
going an extension — was still perfectly open. The 
enemy — remaining in undiminished force, within five 
miles, and whom Wilkinson had declined to attack — • 
could not be ignorant of the weakness of Scott's posi- 
tion. An early assault seemed, therefore, inevitable. 
Each officer (including the commander) and nian 
worked upon the defences from fourteen to twenty 
hours a day. By the fourth night, however, so great 

Stony Creek, in Juue. Scott was personally acquainted with him. Each, 
as chief of the staff, in his own army, was the correspondent of the other 
on the official business common to their commanders. In that way they 
liad personally met with escorts, and under flags of truce. The intimacy 
thus formed was turned to a good account (in 1839), as will be seen in the 
sequel. 



ScoWs Report 101 

liad been tlie progress of these labors, that all became 
anxious for an attacli. (The following official reports, 
taken from American State Pampers — Military Affairs^ 
pp. 482, 483, will carry forward the narrative as far 
as relates to the autobiographer.) 

From Colonel Winfield Scott, of the %d Artillery, to 
Major-Oeneral Wilkinson. 

"Fort George, October 11, 1813. 

" Within the last five minutes I have had the honor 
to receive yom* despatch by the Lady of the Lahe, Cap- 
tain Mix. 

" The enemy has treated me with neglect. He con- 
tinued in his old position until Satm'day last (the 9th 
inst.), when he took up his retreat on Burlington 
Heights, and has abandoned the whole jpeninsida. 
Two causes are assigned for this precipitate movement 
— the succor of Proctor, who is reported to be entirely 
defeated, if not taken ; the other, the safety of King- 
ston, endangered by your movement. • 

" We have had from the enemy many deserters, 
most of whom concur in the latter supposition. 

" The British burnt everything in store in this 
neighborhood ; — three thousand blankets, many hun- 



102 Report to WilMnson Continued. 

drcd stand of arms ; also the l)lankets in tlie men's 
packs, and every article of clothing not in actual use. 

" They are supposed to have reached Burlington 
Heights last evening, from the rate of their march the 
night before. I have information of their having passed 
' the 40 ' * hy several inhabitants who have come down. 
They add to what was stated by the deserters, that two 
officers of the 41st had joined General Yincent from 
Proctor's army, with information that Proctor was de- 
feated eighteen miles this side of Maiden. I cannot 
get particulars. 

" From the same sources of intelligence it appears 
that the 49th, a part of the lOOth, and tlie Yoltigeurs, 
moved from this neighborhood the day after our flotilla 
left this, the 3d inst. ; but with what destination is not 
certainly known. 

" It was first reported (I mean in the British camp) 
that these regiments had marched to support Proctor, 
who, it is said, wrote that he would be compelled to 
surrender, if nofr supported.f 

* Forty Mile Creek — that distance from Niagara, 
f Proctor was defeated, and the British and Indian force in the north- 
west routed, on the 5th of October, 1813. 

The rumor which Scott speaks of was six days after the event, and 



Report to Wilkinson Continued. 103 

" I am pretty sure, however, that they are gone be- 
h)w. The movement of our army seems to have been 
known in the British lines as early as the 3d inst., to- 
gether with the immediate objects in view: hence I 
have no difficulty in concluding that all the movements 
of the enemy will concentrate at Kingston. 

* * * * « J ija(j made this morning an arrange- 
ment, on application to General McClure, to be re- 
lieved in the command of this post, on the morning 
of the 13th inst., with an intention of taking up my 
line of march for Sackett's Harbor, according to the 
discretion allowed me in the instructions I had the 
honor to receive from you at this place. My situation 
has become truly insupportable, without the possibility 
of an attack at this post, and without the possibiHty of 
reaching you in time to share in the glory of impend- 
ing operations below. I am, however, flattered with 
the assurance that transports will be forwarded for my 
removal ; and to favor that impression, I propose taking 
up my line of march on the morning of the 13th for 
the mouth of Genesee River, and there await the arrival 
of the vessels you are good enough to promise me. By 

was no doubt brought in either by officers or Indians from the defeated 
anny. 



104: Bejmrt to Secretary of War. 

this movement Captain Mix thinks with me, that I 
shall hasten my arrival at Sackett's Harbor five, possi- 
bly ten days. Captain Camp * (the quartermaster) has 
a sufficient number of wagons to take me thither, I 
can easily make that place by the evening of the 15th. 
I hope I shall have your approbation, and everything 
is arranged with Brigadier McClure. * * •^!- * I have, 
by working night and day, greatly improved the de- 
fences of this post, and nearly filled up the idea of the 
engineer. I flatter myself that I have also improved 
the garrison iu discipline." * * * * 

Wilkinson's abortive campaign ended, Scott was 
called to Washington for a day or two. 

Extracts of a Letter from Colonel Winfield Scott to the 
Secretary of War. 

" Georgetown, December 31, 1813. 
" At your desire, I have the honor to make the fol- 
lowing report : — I left Fort George on the 13th of 
October last, by order of Major-General Willdnson 
with the whole of the regular troops of the garrison, 

* Colonel J. G. Camp, a distinguished oflBcer in the campaign of 1814, 
on the Niagara. 



Rejport Continued. 105 

and was relieved by Brigadier-General McClure,* witli 
a body of the ISTew York detached militia. 

" Fort George, as a field work, might be considered 
as complete at that period. It was garnished with ten 
pieces of artillery (which number might easily have 
been increased from the spare ordnance of the opposite 
fort), and with an ample supply of ammunition, etc., 
as the enclosed receipt for those articles will exhibit. 

" Fort Niagara, on the 14th of October, was under 
the immediate command of Captain Leonard of the 1st 
artillery, who, besides his own company, had Captain 
Bead's of the same regiment, together with such of 
General McClm^e's brigade as had refused to cross the 
river. Lieutenant-Colonels Fleming, Bloom, and Dob- 
bins, of the militia, had successively been in command 
of this fort, by order of the brigadier-general, but I 
think neither of these was present at the above period. 
Major-General Wilkinson, in his order to me for the 
removal of the regular troops on that frontier, excepted 
the two companies of the 1st artillery, then at Fort 

* On the approach of the enemy, McClure evacuated the fort and 
burnt the adjoining village — then Newark, now Niagara. This soon led 
to the devastation of that entire frontier, including Buffalo. So prone are 
men to imitate evil examples ! 

5* 



106 Heavy March to SacketCs Harbor. 

JS'iagara. And under the supposition that I should 
meet water transportation for my detachment at the 
mouth of Genesee River, I had his orders to take with 
me the whole of the convalescents left in the different 
hospitals by the regiments which had accompanied 
him. This order I complied with." 

Notwdthstanding Chauncey's promise to send trans- 
ports to the Niagara, and Wilkinson's, to the moutli of 
the Genesee, Scott, on arriving at the latter, found only 
tlie despatch vessel, The Lady of the Lake^ with a let- 
ter from the commodore saying that, contrary to his 
entreaties, Wilkinson would not allow any part of the 
fleet to be absent four days vrithout throwing the re- 
sponsibility, in case of a failure of his expedition 
wholly on the navy. Hence Scott was forced to con- 
tinue his march upon Sackett's Harbor, via Canan- 
daigua, Utica, Booneville, etc. The rainy season had 
commenced, and the bad roads were dailv becoming: 
worse. Fortunately he met north of Utica the Sec- 
retary of War, General Armstrong, returning from 
Sackett's Harbor, who had seen Wilkinson depart 
thence for Montreal ; but thinking that Scott, by leav- 
ing his column under the next in rank (Hindman), and 



Passage of Fort Wellington. 107 

striking off to the right, ma Malone, might intercept 
the descent — gave the colonel permission to make the 
attempt. Eiding diligently for some thirty hours, 
with his adjutant Jonathan Kearsley — who early won 
the rank of major by distinguished gallantry, but so 
maimed as to be thrown out of the iield — Scott struck 
the river at "Waddington many miles below Ogdens- 
burg where Wilkinson, with his usual dilatoriness,, 
liad been making preparations to pass tlie enemy's 
fort — Wellington — opposite. After a short sleep and 
change of horses, Scott was again in the saddle, and 
reported himself at headquarters November the 6th, 
just in time to pass the enemy's fire in the headmost 
and largest craft in the whole flotilla. The scene was 
most sublime. The roar of cannon was unremitting, 
and darkness rendered visible by the whizzing and 
bursting of shells and Congreve rockets. 

The next day Scott was assigned to a fine battalion 
of grenadiers, in the corps d' elite, under the senior 
colonel, Macomb, who was in the advance, and thus 
the former became the commander of the advance of 
that corps — which placed him in the lead of the whole 
army. Hastening to his position he found the grena- 
diers in boats and pushing off shore. He had but time 



108 Command of the Advance — Hooppole CreeJc. 

to leap aboard, when, being recognized, loud cheers 
welcomed the new commander. 

The first object was to take Fort Matilda, that 
commanded the narrowest point in the St. Lawrence. 
Scott landed about sunset a little above the work, and 
was there met by a detachment of the enemy that 
proved to be the garrison of Matilda — believed, b}' 
them, to be untenable. A sharp affair ensued. The 
advance made some prisoners, among them an officer ; 
killed or wounded many men, and dispersed tlie re- 
mainder. 

Descending the river the advance had, on the 11th 
of November a more serious affair at Hooppole Creek, 
a little above Cornwall. Here Avere met, under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Dennis, an officer of merit, a force equal 
to Scott's (about eight hundred men) in position to de- 
fend the bridge. Leaving Captain McPherson M'ith a 
light field battery — otlier troops were coming up — to 
amuse the enemy, Scott stole a march of nearly a mile 
to the left, and forded the creek which, making an 
acute angle witii the river below, gave the hope of 
hemming in and capturing the whole of the enemy. 
Dennis discovered the movement in time to save by a 
precipitate retreat the main body of his men. The 



Retread out of Canada. 109 

rear, however, was cut off, and many stragglers picked 
up in a hot pursuit that was continued into the night. 

This affair, and the disaster at Chrystler's Field, 
fifteen miles in the rear, occurred the same day, and 
were the principal conflicts of Wilkinson's famous cam- 
paign — begun in boastings, and ended in deep humili- 
ation ! Montreal was still within the easy grasp of 
half the troops disgraced by their commanders at 
Chrystler's Field; but the fatuity of the general-in- 
chief (and of others) made success almost impossible. 
The army, in disgust, retreated oiit of Canada; as- 
cended the Salmon River, and passed the winter at 
The French Mills — since called Fort Covington — in 
latitude 45°. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

REFLECTIONS ON PAST DISASTERS — CALLED TO WASHING- 
TON BUFFALO — CAMP OF INSTRUCTION CAMPAIGN OF 

1814 OPENED. 

The patriot reader, stirred with indignation at the 
deplorable loss of national character, life, and property 
sustained by Hull's surrender; the surprise of Chand- 
ler at Stony Creek; the capture of Boerstler at the 
Beaver Dams ; the abandonment of Fort George, by 
McClure ; the vacillation and helplessness of at least 
three generals and many colonels in the disaster of 
Chrystler's — will ask, at every tura : What ! Shall 
not fatuity, incapacity, ignorance, imbecility — call it 
as you may — in a commander — of whatever rank — be 
equally punished with cowardice, or giving aid and 
comfort to the enemy? Shall a dull man, who ascer- 



Painful Reflections. Ill 

tains that he can get a little money in the army — not 
having the ability to earn his bread at home — and, ac- 
cordingly, obtains a commission? Shall a coxcomb, 
who merely wants a splendid uniform to gratify his 
peacock vanity — be allowed unnecessarily to lose his 
men by hundreds, or by thousands, to surrender them 
in mass, or to cause them to be beaten by inferior 
nmnbers ; — shall such imbeciles escape ignominious 
punishment ? In every such case, Humanity — as loud- 
ly as Justice — calls for death. 

In the Analectic Macjazine (Philadelphia) for 
December, 1814, there is a " Biographical Sketch of 
Major-Genera] Scott," signed Y. — understood to be 
the distinguished scholar and statesman — the Honor- 
able Gulian C. Verplanck — containing reflections of 
great beauty, force, and value on the same campaign. 
The writer says : 

" From whatever cause it proceeded, individual 
bravery and enterprise had been uniformly rendered 
abortive by a long series of delays and blunders. The 
patriot, who, regardless of party considerations, looked 
solely to the national honor and welfare, still continued 
to turn away his eyes from the northern frontier — 



112 Reflections Continued. 

' heartsick of his country's shame.' Even the most 
zealous partisans of the measures of the administration 
did not dare to do justice to the numerous examples of 
prowess and conduct wliich had been displayed in our 
armies in the course of the campaign of 1813. It was 
scarcely suspected by the public, that this period of 
disaster had served as a touchstone on which tlie true 
temper of our army had been tlioroughly tried, so tliat 
it had now become easy to select the pure metal from 
tlie dross ; that in this hard school of adversity many 
brave and high-spirited young men had been formed 
into accomplished officers, and, on the other hand, 
many an empty foj), young and old, wlio had been 
seduced into the service by the glitter of epaulets and 
lace, and military buttons, had been severely taught 
his incompetency. The rude northern gales of the 
frontier had swept away the painted insects which rise 
and spread their wings in the summer sun, but served 
only to rouse and invigorate those eagle spirits wlio, 
during the calm, cower undisturbed in solitude aiul 
silence, but as the temjiest rises burst forth from their 
obscurity, and stem the storm, and sport themselves in 
the ffale." 



Equipoise of Imbecility on Lake Ontario. IK) 

Early in 1813, the great contest on Lake Ontario 
commenced between tlie ship carpenters at Kingston, 
under Sir James Teo, and the ship carpenters, under 
Commodore Chauncey, at Sacketts Harbor. He that 
launched the last ship sailed in triumph up and down 
the lake, while his opponent lay snug, but not inactive, 
in harbor. This was (say) Chauncey's week of glory. 
Sir James's was sure to follow, and Chauncey, in turn, 
had to chafe in harbor, while preparing another launch 
for recovering the mastery of the lake. This contest 
might have been continued, without the possibility of 
a battle for an indefinite time. It did not end with 
1814; for the treaty of peace (February, 1815) found 
on the stocks, at Sacketts Harbor, two mammoth ships 
— the Chippewa and ITew Orleans — pierced for more 
than a hundred guns each, only waiting for a thaw ; 
and Sir James Yeo was always ready to match launch 
with launch. 

Thus the two naval heroes of defeat held each other 
a little more than at arms-lenp-th — neither beins' will- 
ing to risk a battle without a decided superiority in 
gans and men ; and if Wilkinson complained of the 
non-capture of the British fleet, Chauncey was ready 
with the retort that Wilkinson ought first to deprive 



114 War Incajpacity of Government. 

that Heet of its safe refuge by taking Kingston. In 
fact, in the plan of operations prescribed to Wilkinson 
the capture of Kingston was suggested as an early ob- 
ject of attention. Wilkinson, however, as we have 
seen, preferred to take Montreal ! Here then was 
found, in this extraordinary campaign, more than one 
case of (seeming) matchless imbecility, well matched. 

This war was not sprung upon the United States 
by surprise. From time to time, and for years, wrong 
upon wrong had plainly admonished that base submis- 
sion or resistance d outrance was inevitable, and the 
weaker party had the clioiee of time. Yet there was 
but slight ausrmentation of the land and naval forces, 
even under such powerful inducements, and no system 
of finance established. Loans, it is true, were author- 
ized ; T)ut no adequate means provided for interest and 
redemption. Hence, from the beginning to the end 
of hostilities, there was a want of money and men. 
Indeed, seven tenths of the moneyed capital of the land 
were in tlie hands of the war's bitterest opponents. 
With money, men might have been obtained, and with 
men, victories would have inspired confidence, and thus 
the cupidity of capitalists allured. Hence it was that 
our fifty-odd regular regiments were mostly skeletons 



Skeleton Regiments— Called to Washington. 115 

(scarcely one ever half full) during tlie war, and we 
always in our trium]3lis, attacked or defended with in- 
ferior numbers, except in a few instances, when equal- 
ity was made up by raw A^olunteers or militia — oftener 
an element of weakness than of strength. This was 
extremely discouraging to commanders, like Scott, 
whose rank, zeal, and efficiency threw them into the 
front of every movement. 

It has been seen that Colonel Scott, about the end 
of the year 1813, was called to Washington by desire 
of the President. He had had only three interviews 
with him and Mr. Secretary Armstrong, when a depu- 
tation from Western :N'ew York, headed by the Hon. 
John ^^icholas, of Geneva (ex-M. C. from Virginia) 
arrived, to demand that Scott might be sent to make 
head against the enemy on the Niagara frontier, which 
had just been devastated by Major-General Riall, in re- 
taliation (as alleged) for McClure's burning the village 
of JS'ewark. Riall having, by a rapid movement, dis- 
mayed and scattered the militia from Lake Ontario to 
Lake Erie almost without fii-ing a gun, it was not 
known how far he might extend his triumphant march 
into the interior. For a time the alarm extended as 
far east as Geneva and Canandaigua. Scott was hasti- 



116 Sent to the Niagara, 

ly despatched accordingly ; but instructed to stop a 
moment at Albany, in order to make requisitions upon 
the Governor for fresh le^aes of militia; to prepare 
field trains, with ammunition, etc., etc., for his new 
mission, and in order that the appointment of briga- 
dier-general might overtake him, as, without promo- 
tion, he could not command any militia general officer. 
But it was soon known at Washington that the enemy 
had quietly recrossed the Niagara, and as the War 
Department wished about this time to make a number 
of new generals at once, Scott's promotion was made to 
wait for the selection of the other names. In the mean 
time he continued to assist in the Albany arsenal in 
the preparation of the materiel of war for the im- 
pending campaign, under the valuable instructions of 
Colonel Bomford, who was well skilled in such opera- 
tions. 

At tliis dark period of the war, Albany, rather than 
Washington, was the watchtower of the nation, and 
here Scott, during this hindrance on the route to 
Canada, was, by the desire of the President, and their 
cordial reception, in frequent consultation — on high 
political and military matters — with those distinguish- 
ed statesmen and patriots — Governor Tompkins and 



Political Councils — A Brigadier. 117 

Judges Spencer and Thompson — ever afterward his 
special friends. Two other eminent citizens — Messieurs 
Jenkins and Bloodgood — were often present, and in- 
deed it was at the board of some one of the five — all 
hospitable — that these confidential interviews were 
usually held. In the North Judge Spencer was, truly, 
very like Judge Spencer Roane in the South — the 
master spirit of the war ; — a man that never doubted, 
w^hen duty called, or shirked an opinion. With him, 
it was but a word and a blow. " Down with that man ! 
a poltroon, a traitor." " Up with this man ! the coun- 
try needs his services." And the result was, very gen- 
erally, in accordance with the dictum. 

It may be mentioned, in this connection, that the 
late ex-President Yan Buren — then just emerging into 
distinction, a State senator and adjunct counsel in the 
prosecution of Hull before a general court martial — 
now began to make time, from the labors of the Senate 
and the bar, to mix a little in the reunions alluded to. 
He ably supported the war, and had the confidence of 
all its friends. 

Finally, about the middle of March, 1814, Scott 
received, at the age of twenty-seven and nine months, 
the long-coveted rank of brigadier-general. His prep- 



118 Off for the Niagara — Camp of Instruction. 

arations had been made in advance, and the next morn- 
ing lie was in the saddle for where 

" Niagara stuns with thundering sound." 

Major-Gen era! Brown, appointed to command the 
entire frontier of New York, had marched some days 
earlier from the French Mills for the same destination, 
witli the Dth, 11th, 21st, 22d, 23d, and 25th regiments 
of infantry (not one of them half full) ; several field 
batteries and a trooj) of light dragoons. Scott joined 
him some miles east of Buffalo, March 24, 1814. Brig- 
adier-General Ripley, Scott's junior, was with those 
troops. 

The major-general, though full of zeal and vigor, 
was not a technical soldier : that is, knew but little of 
organization, tactics, police, etc., etc. He, therefore, 
charged Scott with the establishment of a camp of in- 
struction at Buffalo, and the preparation of the army 
for the field by the reopening of the season. In the 
mean time — and while waiting for the recruits (which 
never came) to till uj) the regiments — Major-General 
Brown returned to the right wing of his dej)artment — 
then called District, No. 9 — headquarters, Sackett's 
Harbor. 



Ca7n]) of Instruction at Buffalo. 119 

The spring, in tlie region of Buffalo, is, till late in 
May, inclement, and March quite wintry. No time, 
however, was lost ; the camp was formed on very eligi- 
ble ground ; the infantry thrown into first and second 
brigades — the latter under Ripley, and the service of 
outposts, night patrols, guards, and sentinels organized ; 
a system of sanitary police, including kitchens, etc., 
laid down; rules of civility, etiquette, courtesy — the 
indispensable outworks of subordination — prescribed 
and enforced, and the tactical instruction of each arm 
commenced. IS'othing but night or a heavy fall of 
snow or rain was allowed to interrupt these exercises 
on the ground — to the extent, in tolerable weather, of 
ten hours a day, for three months. As relaxation, both 
officers and men were thus brought to sigh for orders 
to beat up the enemy's quarters ; but the commander 
knew that such work could not be effectually done 
without the most laborious preparation. His own 
labors were heavy and incessant. Take for illustra- 
tion mfcmtry tactics ; the basis of instruction for cav- 
alry and artillery as well. As Government had pro- 
vided no text book Brigadier-General Scott adopted, 
for the army of the JSTiagara, the French system, of 
which he had a copy in the original, and there was ij» 



130 Labors of Instruction. 

camp anotlier, in English — a bad translation. He be- 
gan by forming the officers of all grades, indiscrimi- 
nately into squads, and personally instructed them in 
the schools of tlie soldier and company. They then 
were allowed to instruct squads and companies of tlieir 
own men — a whole field of them under the eye of the 
general at once, who, in passing, took successively 
many companies in hand, each for a time. So, too, on 
the formation of battalions ; he instructed each an hour 
or two a day for many days, and afterward carefully 
superintended their instruction by the respective field 
officers. There was not an old officer in the two 
brigades of infantry. Still, if the new appointments 
had been furnished with a text book, the saving of time 
and labor would have been immense. 

The brigadier-general's labors were about the same 
in respect to lessons on subjects alluded to above, other 
than tactics (measures of safety to a camp, near the 
enemy ; police, etiquette, etc.). No book of general 
regulations or Military Institutes, had been provided. 
This great want he had to supply orally and by vn-it- 
ten orders. (It will be seen that text books on all the 
foregoing subjects were subsequently prepared and 
published by the autobiographer.) 



Arrival of General Brown. 121 

The evolutions of the line, or the harmonious move- 
ments of many battalions in one or more lines, with u 
reserve — on the same principle that many companies 
are manoeuvred together in the same battalion, and 
with the same ease and exactness — were next daily ex- 
hibited for the first time by an American army, and to 
the great delight of the troops themselves, who now 
began to perceive why they had been made to fag so 
long at the drill of the soldier, the company, and the 
battalion. Confidence, the dawn of victory, inspired 
the whole line. 

Toward the end of June, 1814, Major - General 
Brown returned from the rio-ht to the left wing of his 
district, to open the campaign on the Niagara, though 
it had become rather the expectation, if not the desire 
of the War Department, that that service should be left 
to Scott, the immediate commander. The regiments 
from the failure to obtain recruits, were still but skele- 
tons. Their high instruction on all points of duty 
won for them, however, the major-general's admiration. 

With a view to the prestige of the day, Scott rather 
wished to make the descent on our national anniver- 
sary ; but Brown's impatience being equal to his vigor, 
we anticipated a day, although the means of passing 



122 Descent Under Fire. 

the foot of Lake Erie to attack the fort of that name 
opposite to Buffalo, were not all quite in position. For 
the preparation of those means, the army was indebted 
to the extraordinary zeal and abilities of its quarter- 
master. Captain John G. Camp, who, with other high 
claims to promotion, continued the chief in that branch 
of the stall' throughout the campaign, without other re- 
ward than compliments.* 

Scott, with his brigade led, followed by Major Hind- 
man's artillery, Brigadier-General Ripley's brigade of 
regulars, and Brigadier-General P. B. Porter's brigade 
of militia ; Ripley was ordered to land above the fort. 
Scott, in the first boat, with some one hundred and 
fifty men and accompanied by his stafi" — Captain Camp, 
the quartermaster (a volunteer for the nonce), and Lieu- 
tenants Gerard D. Smith, W. J. Worth, and George 
Watts — steered for the shore, a little below the point of 
attack. The place of landir.g proved to be a cove, 
swept by a whirlpool. The night (about 2 o'clock a. m.) 
was rather dark ; but the enemy, perceiving the aj> 
proach, planted a detachment to oppose the landing. 
Xear the shore, when the enemy's fire began to be a 

* He was disbanded in 1815 ; made and lost fortunes in Buffalo and 
Sandusky; was several years Marshal in Florida, and died in 1860. 



Fort Erie Invested — Captured. 123 

little galling upon the crowd in the boats, Scott liad a 
most critical adventure. Sounding with his sword, he 
found the water less than knee deep, when personally 
leaping out, instead of giving the command — follow 
one I had scarcely time to exclaim — too deejp I to save 
hundreds from drowning; for, at the instant, before 
leaping, his boat had taken a wide sheer, and he had 
to swim for his life, equally in jeopardy from fire and 
water — encumbered with sword, epaulets, cloak, and 
high boots. It was a minute or two, still under fire, 
before the boat could be brought back to pick him up. 
Again the fii"st in the water, and promptly followed by 
detachments of his brigade, the shore was cleared at 
once, and the fort invested below just as the other 
troops were landing. 

The fort, like its garrison, being weak, and no 
known succor at hand, a formidable resistance could 
not be ofiiered. Some heavy pieces of artillery were 
placed in battery and a few shots exchanged, wlien the 
major-general asked Scott to name an officer to bear, 
under a flag of truce, his demand for a surrender. 
Major Jesup, of Scott's brigade, was selected for this 
honorable service, and articles of capitulation were 
soon agreed upon. 



CHAPTER X. 



EUNNIKG FIGHT CHIPPEWA. 



The niglit had been rainy ; but a bright sun cheered 
tlie invaders on the morning of the glorious Fourth of 
July. To seek the enemy beloAv, Scott was early de- 
tached with liis brigade — the 25th Infantry, command- 
ed by Major T. S. Jesup ; the 9th by Major H. Leaven- 
worth, and the 11th by Major J. MclSTiel, together with 
Captain S. T>. Harris's troop of light dragoons, and 
the light batteries under Major Hindman, of Captains 
N . Towson and Thomas Biddle of Scott's late regiment 
of artillery. 

Early in tlie march, a little above Blackrock, a con- 
siderable body of the enemy was discovered. It proved 
to be a corps of observation under the command of the 



Fourth of July — Rumiing Fight. 125 

Marquess of Tweedale. All hearts leaped with joy at 
the chance of doing something worthy of the anni- 
versary, and to cheer our desponding countrymen at 
home — something that might ever, on that returning 
day — 

" Be in their flowing cups, freshly remembered." 

The events of the day, however, proved most tanta- 
lizing. An eager pursuit of sixteen miles ensued. The 
lieat and dust were scarcely bearable ; but not a man 
flagged. All felt that immortal fame lay within reach. 
The enemy, however, had the start in the race by many 
minutes ; but his escape was only insured by a number 
of sluggish creeks in the way, each with an ordinary 
bridge, and too much mud and water to be forded near 
its mouth. The floors of those bridges were, in succes- 
sion, throAVQ off by the marquess, but he was never 
allowed time to destroy the sleepers. Taking up po- 
sitions, however, to retard the relaying the planks, 
obliged Scott to deploy a part of his column and to 
open batteries. The first bridge, forced in that way, 
the chase was renewed, and so was the contest at two 
other bridges, precisely in the manner of the first and 
with the same results. Finally, toward sunset, the 
enemy were driven across the Chippewa Kiver behind 



120 The Enemy Escapes a Battle. 

a strong tide de pont, where tliey met their main army 
under Major-General Riall. 

This rmining figlit, of some twelve hours, was re- 
markable in one circumstance : in tlie campaigns of 
the autobiograplier, it was the first and only time that 
he ever found himself at the liead of a force superior to 
that of the enemy in liis front : their relative numbers 
being, on this occasion, about as four to three. 

The Marquess of Tweedale, a gallant soldier, on a 
visit to the United States soon after peace, made sev- 
eral complimentary allusions to the prowess of our 
troops in the war, and particularly to the events of the 
4th of July, 1814, on the Niagara — among them, that 
he could not account for the impetuosity of the Ameri- 
cans, in that pursuit, till a late hour, when some one 
called out — it is their National Anniversary ! * 

The proximity of Riall reversed the strength of the 
antagonists, and Scott, unpursued, fell back a little more 

* Scott passing through London, in 1815, to Paris, met the Marquess 
of Tweedale in the street, when the parties kindly recognized each other. 
The latter was on the point of setting out for Scotland, and the former for 
France. Scott was assured of a welcome at Tester House, the seat of the 
maniuess, if he should visit Scotland. This meeting soon became strange- 
ly misrepresented, on both sides of the Atlantic, to the great annoyance 
of the parties. 



Skirmishing — JPonrth of July Dinner. 127 

than a mile, to take up a strong camp behind Street's 
Creek, to await the arrival of the reserve under Major- 
General Brown. The junction took place early in the 
morning of the 5tli, 

Brown lost no time in giving orders to prepare the 
materials for throwing a bridge across the Chippewa, 
some little distance above the village and the enemy 
at its mouth. (There was no travelling jponton with 
the army.) That work was put under the charge of 
our able engineers, McRee and Wood — the wise coun- 
sellors of the general-in-chief. This was the labor of 
the day. In the mean time the British militia and In- 
dians filled the wood to our left and annoyed the pick- 
ets posted in its edge. Porter's militia were ordered 
to dislodge the enemy, and much skirmishing ensued 
between the parties. 

The anniversary dinner cooked for Scott's brigade, 
with many extras added by him in honor of the day, 
happily came over from Schlosser on the 5th, and was 
soon despatched by officers and men, who had scarcely 
broken fast in thirty-odd hours. 

To keep his men in breath, he had ordered a parade 
for grand evolutions in the cool of the afternoon. For 
this purpose there was below the creek, a plain extend- 



128 Battle of C]dj>pewa. 

ing back from the Niagara of some hundreds of yards 
in the broader part, and a third narrower lower down. 
From the dinner, without expecting a battle, though 
fully prejjared for one, Scott marched for this field. 
The \dew below from his camp was obstructed by the 
brushwood that fringed the creek ; but when arrived 
near the bridge at its mouth, he met Major-General 
Brown, coming in at full gallop, who, in passing, said 
with emphasis : You will have a hattle! and, without 
halting, pushed on to the rear to put Ripley's brigade 
in motion — supposing that Scott was perfectly aware 
of the near approach of the entire British army and 
going out expressly to meet it. The head of his 
(Scott's) column had scarcely entered the bridge before 
it was met by a fire, at an easy distance, from nine 
field guns. Towson's battery quickly responded with 
some efl'ect. The column of our infantry, greatly elon- 
gated by the diminution of front, to enable it to pass 
the narrow bridge, steadily advanced, though Avitli 
some loss, and battalion after battalion when over, 
formed line to the left and front, under the continued 
fire of the enemy's battery. When Scott was seen ap- 
proaching the bridge. General Hi all, who had dispersed 
twice his numbers the winter before, in his expedition 



Battle Continued — A New Anniversary. 129 

on tlie American side, said : It is nothing l)ut a hody of 
Biijfalo militia ! But when the bridge was passed in 
fine style, under his heavy fire of artillery, he added 
with an oath : WJiy^ these are regulars ! The gray 
coats at first deceived him, Avhich Scott was obliged to 
accept, there being no blue cloth in the country. (In 
compliment to the battle of Chippewa, our military 
cadets have worn gray coats ever since.) Two hostile 
lines were now in view of each other, but a little be- 
yond the efi'ective range of musketry. 

It has been seen that the model American brigade, 
notwithstanding the excessive vigor and prowess exert- 
ed the day before, had failed in the ardent desire to 
engraft its name, by a decisive victory, on the great 
national anniversary. The same corps again confront- 
ing the enemy, but in an open field, Scott, riding rapid- 
ly along the line, threw out a few short sentences — 
among them, alluding to the day before, was this : 
Let us make a new anniversary for ourselves! J^ot 
finding his name in the official paper (Gazette) after 
his handsome services at the capture of Bastia and 
Calvi, early in his career, Nelson with the spirit of 
divination upon him, said : " Never mind ; I will have 

a Gazette of my own." A little arrogance, near the 
6* 



130 Battle — Nice Manoeuvring. 

enemy, when an officer is ready to suit the action to 
the word, may be pardoned by his countrymen. And 
it has often happened, if not always, wlien Fourths of 
July have fallen on Sundays, that Chippewa has been 
remembered at the celebrations of Independence on 
the 5th (,)f July. 

The brigade had scarcely been fully deployed, 
when it was perceived that it was outflanked by the 
enemy on the plain, besides the invisible f(jrce that had 
just driven Porter and the militia out of the wood. 
Critical manoeuvring became necessary on the part of 
Scott ; for the position and intentions of Brown, with 
Ilipley and Porter, were, and remained entirely un- 
knoMTi to him till the battle was over. The enemy 
continuing to advance, presented a new right flank 
on the widened plain, leaving his right wing in the 
wood which Scott had caused to be confronted by 
Jesup's battalion, the 25th Infantry, which leaped the 
fence, checked, and soon pushed the enemy toward the 
rear. At the same time having ordered that the right 
wing of the consolidated battalion (9th and 22d Infan- 
try) commanded by Leavenworth, should be thrown 
forward, with Towson's battery on the extreme right, 
close to the Niacrara, Scott flew to McNiel's battalion. 



Decisive Charge. 131 

the lltli Infantry, now on the left, and assisted in 
throwing forward its left wing. The battalions of 
Leavenworth and McNiel thus formed, pointed to an 
obtuse angle in the centre of the plain, with a wide in- 
terval between them, that made up for deficiency of 
numbers. To fire, each party had halted more than 
once, at wliich the Americans had the more deadly 
aim. At an approximation to within sixty or seventy 
paces, the final charge (mutual) was commenced. The 
enemy soon came within the obliqued battalions of 
Leavenworth and McNiel. Towson's fire was efifec- 
tive from the beginning. At the last moment, blinded 
by thick smoke, he was about to lose his most efl'ective 
discharge, when Scott, on a tall charger, perceiving 
that the enemy had come within the last range of the 
battery, caused a change that enfiladed many files of 
the opposing flank. The clash of bayonets, at each ex- 
tremity, instantly followed, when the wings of the 
enemy being outflanked, and to some extent doubled 
upon, were mouldered away like a rope of sand. It is 
not in human nature that a conflict like this should 
last many seconds. The enemy's whole force broke 
in quick succession and fled, leaving the field thickly 
strewn with his dead and wounded. The victory waB 



132 Pursuit — Victory Compute. 

equally complete in front of Jesup. A hot pursuit was 
continued to within half gunshot of the batteries at 
Chippewa Bridge, to gather up prisoners and with 
good success. Returning, Scott met Major-General 
Brown coming out of the forest, who, with Ripley's 
regulars and the rallied militia of Porter, had made a 
wide circuit to the left, intending to get between the 
enemy and the Chippewa, and this might have been 
effected if the battle had lasted a half hour longer ; but 
suppose that Scott in tlie mean time had been over- 
whelmed by superior numbers ! 

The term charge occurs several times above, and 
often in military narratives. A word to explain its 
professional meaning may be acceptable. General 
Moreau, when in America, remarked that in all his 
campaigns he had " never known anything approach- 
ing to a (jeneral conflict of bayonets ; " tliough perhaps 
in all battles between infantry, a few Hies at a time, 
or small parts of opposing lines (as at Chippewa) come 
into the deadly rencounter. 

" A charge^ in military phrase, is said to be made, 
when either party stops firing, throws bayonets for- 
ward, and advances to the shock, whether the enemy 
receive it or fly. An actual crossing of bayonets, 



Gloom Dissipated. 133 

therefore, is not indispensable to the idea of a charge. 
To suppose it is, is a mistake. Another popular error 
is, that the parties come up to the shock in parallel 
lines. Such a case has rarely, if ever, occurred. Eacli 
commander always seeks by manoeuvring to gain the 
oblique position, and, if possible, to outflank his enemy. 
With superior forces both advantages may easily be 
gained ; but with inferior numbers the difficulty is ex- 
treme. The excess on the part of the enemy can only 
be overcome by celerity of movement, accuracy, hardi- 
hood, skill, and zeal." * 

Few men now alive are old enough to recall the 
deep gloom, approaching to despair, which about this 
time oppressed the whole American people — especial- 
ly the supporters of the war. The disasters on the 
land have been enumerated, and now the Kew Eng- 
land States were preparing to hold a convention — it 
met at Hartford — perhaps to secede from the Union 
— ^possibly to take up arms against it. Scott's brigade, 
nearly all New England men, were most indignant, 
and this was the subject of the second of the three 
pithy remarks made to them by Scott just before the 

* This paragraph is taken from Mansfield's hfe of the autobiographer, 
but was originally furnished (substantially) in the notes of the latter. 



134 Rejoicings at Home. 

final conflict at Chippewa. Calling aloud to tlie gal- 
lant Major Hindnian, he said : " Let us put down the 
federal convention hy heating the enemy in front. 
There's nothing in the Constitution against thatP * 

History has recorded many victories on a niucli 
larger scale tlian tliat of Chippewa ; but only a few 
that have wrought a greater change in the feelings of 
a nation. Everywhere bonfires blazed ; bells rung out 
peals of joys ; the big guns responded, and tlie pulse of 
Americans recovered a healthy beat. 

* The third, adch-essed to the 11th Infantry, at the Last moment, was 
this : The enemy my that Americans are good at long shot ; but cannot 
stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly to give the lie to the slander. 
Charge 1 



CHAPTER XI. 

investment of forts battle of niagaea oe 

lundy's lane. 

The enemy being again in tbe strong position be- 
hind the Chippewa, tbe preparation of materials for 
the bridge was renewed early on tbe 6tb, but before 
they were quite ready, Major-General Riall decamped ; 
sent reenforcements to his works at the mouth of tbe 
Niagara, struck off to tbe left at Queenstown and re- 
tm-ned with tbe remainder of bis army to Burlington 
Heights at the bead of Lake Ontario. So it turned 
out, as we learned, in a day or two. Scott's brigade 
was again despatched in pursuit. He crossed the Chip- 
pewa Bridge early on tbe 7tb and reported from Queens- 
town the ascertained movements of Riall. 

Major-General Brown determined to attack tbe 



13G I^o/'ts Invested — Siraiagem. 

forts (George and Messassmiga) at tlie moutli of the 
river, and accordingly marched his whole force upon 
them — Scott always in the lead. Perhaps it had been 
better, after masking those works, to have moved at 
once upon Riall. But arrangements had been made 
between the general-in-chief and Commodore Chauncey 
for siege guns to be brought up by our ships of war ; 
for the Niagara army had not a piece heavier than an 
18-pounder. The forts were invested : Messassauga, 
built since McClure evacuated George, the year before. 

Tlie investment was maintained till the 23d of 
July, when Chauncey reported that he could not com- 
ply with his promise. The reason being that it was 
Sir James Yeo's turn to hold the mastery of the lake. 

Major-General Brown, thinking it would be more 
difficult to find than to beat Riall in the Highlands 
about the head of the lake, now resolved to try tlie 
effect of a stratagem to draw him out of his snug posi- 
tion. Accordingly, the Americans on the morning of 
the 24tli assumed a panic ; broke up camp and retreat- 
ed rapidly up the river. There was only! a moment's 
halt at Queenstown — to throw the sick across into hos- 
pital at Lewiston, until all were securely encamped 
above the Chippewa. The following was to be a day 



False Bepopt. 137 

of rest and to give Riall time to come down in pursuit. 
It was further arranged that Scott's brigade, reenforced, 
should early in the morning of the 26th return rapidly 
upon Queenstown, and if the stratagem proved a fail- 
ure, then to trace up Riall and attack him wherever 
found. Consequently, it was intended that tlie 25th 
of July should be to the army a day of relaxation — 
without other duties than cleaning of arms, the wasli- 
ing of clothes, and bathing, except that Scott's troops 
were ordered to fill their haversacks with cooked pro- 
visions. 

While all were thus unbuttoned and relaxed, a 
militia colonel, whose regiment occnpied several posts 
on the American side of the river, sent a specific report 
to Major-General Brow^n that the enemy had thrown 
across, from Queenstown, to Lewiston, a strong body 
of troops, and as it could not be to disturb the small 
hospital at the latter place, Brown concluded the move- 
ment had in view the destruction of our magazines at 
Schlosser, and stopping the stream of supplies descend- 
ing from Buifalo. Of course, Eiall must have come 
down from the Highlands ; but as one of our brigades 
had beaten his entire force, twenty days before, it was 
diflicult to believe he had risked a division of his weak- 



138 Meeting of Svjperior Numbers. 

ened army so near to tlie superior numbers of Brown ; 
for not a rumor had reached the hitter tliat Riall had 
been reenforced. Indeed it was only known, from 
( "hauncey, at Sackett's Harbor, that Sir James Teo 
had possession of the lake ; for Brown's means of secret 
intelligence, if any, were of no avail. In this state of 
ignorance, but confidence in the report received. Brown 
ordered Scott, with his command, to march below, to 
find the enemy and to beat him. It was now in the 
afternoon, and all had dined. In less than tliirty 
minutes, the splendid column — horse, artillery, and in- 
fantry — had ])assed the bridge at the village of Chippe- 
wa, and was in full march for Queenstown (nine miles 
below), intending no halt short of that point. But 
Vhomme propose et Dieu dispose. Turning the sweep 
the river makes a mile or two above the Falls, a horse- 
man in scarlet was from time to time discovered peep- 
ing out from the wood on the left, and lower down, the 
advance guard, with which Scott rode, came upon a 
house (Forsyth's) from which two British officers fled 
just in time to escape capture. Only two inhabitants 
had been seen in the march, and these, from ignorance 
or loyalty, said nothing that did not mislead. The 
population was hostile to Americans. 



Battle of Niagara or Lxindy's Lane. 139 

From such indications it seemed evident that there 
was a corps of observation in the neighborhood, and 
Scott so rei^orted to headquarters; but from the in- 
formation on which he had advanced, it could only be 
a small body, detached from an inferior army that had 
committed the folly of sending at least half of its num- 
bers to the opposite side of the river. There was, there- 
fore, no halt and no slackening in the march of the 
Americans. Passing a thick skirt of wood that crossed 
the road nearly opposite to the Falls, the head of the 
column emerged into an opening on the left in full 
view, and in easy range of a line of battle drawn up in 
Lundy's Lane, more extensive than that defeated at 
Chippewa. 

Riall's whole force was in the lane ; for, it turned 
out not only not a man had been thrown over the river, 
but that the night before Lieutenant-General Sir Gor- 
don Drummond had arrived by the lake with a heavy 
reenforcement, and had pushed forward his battalions 
(sixteen miles) as they successively landed. One was 
already in line of battle, and the others were coming 
up by forced marches. 

The aches in broken bones feelingly remind the 
autobiographer of the scene he is describing, and after 



140 Battle Continued. 

the lapse of nearly fifty years lie cannot suppress liis 
indignation at the blundering, stupid report made by 
the militia colonel to his confiding friend Major-Gen 
eral Brown. 

Jesup's battalion (the 25th), marching in the rear, 
was detached to the right, covered by brushwood, be- 
tween the road and the river, to turn the enemy's left. 
Hindman, with Towson's and Thomas Biddle's bat- 
teries, the 9th and 22d consolidated under Colonel 
Brady, and the 11th (McMel's) were, as they preceded 
Jesup, deployed to the left in the open space, when a 
tremendous fire of all arms responded to that of the 
enemy. At the discovery of the formidable line, Scott 
despatched another staff officer to the general-in-chief, 
who was still in his camp (nearly three miles off) with 
a promise to maintain his ground till the arrival of the 
reserve. Nothing was more difficult. 

At the moment of this promise — whether it might 
not be his duty to fall back ? was rapidly considered. 
But for some particular circumstances that alternative 
should have been adopted ; but the brigade was, from 
the first, under a heavy fire, and could not be with- 
drawn without a hot pursuit. Being but half seasoned 
to war, some danger of confusion in its ranks, with the 



Battle Continued. 141 

certainty of throwing the whole reserve (coming np) 
into a panic, were to be apprehended ; for an extrava- 
gant opinion generally prevailed throughout the army 
in respect to the prowess — nay, invincibility of Scott's 
brigade. 

By standing fast, the salutary impression was made 
upon the enemy that the whole American reserve was 
at hand and would soon assault his flanks. Emboldened, 
however, a little by its non-arrival, an attempt was made 
to turn Scott's left. The 11th, that occupied thnt posi- 
tion, threw forward (under cover of a clump of trees) 
its right, and drove the enemy beyond reach. 

Jesup, too, on our right, had brilliant success. In 
making the sweep around the enemy's left flank, he 
captured Major-General Kiall and cut off a segment of 
his line. Sir Gordon Drummond, also, was for a mo- 
ment a prisoner, but he contrived to escape in the dusk 
of the evening. Hindman's artillery, Brady's battalion, 
consolidated with Leavenworth's, had suffered and in- 
flicted great losses under a direct fire, unremitted, till 
dusk. The 11th, partially covered, suflfered less. 

At this moment Major-General Brown and stafl" 
came up a little ahead of the reserve— of course, each 
with the bandage of night on his eyes ; for it was now 



1-12 Battle Continued in the Night. 

(lark — after nine o'clock in the evening. Scott gave 
the general the incidents of the battle, and the posi- 
tions of the hostile forces on the field. It was known 
from prisoners that further reenforcements, from be- 
low, were soon expected. Not a moment was to be 
lost. By desire, Scott suggested that the heaviest bat- 
talion ill tlie reserve, the 21st, which he had instructed 
at Buffalo, and was now commanded by Colonel Miller, 
should, supported by the remainder of Ripley's brigade, 
charge up the lane, take the enemy in flank, apd roll 
his whole crumbled line back into the wood. 

To favor this important movement, Scott, with the 
added force of Jesup, now back in line, ordered the 
attack, in front, to be redoubled ; guided Brown, with 
Miller, through the darkness, to the foot of the lane, 
and then rejoined his own forces. Here he was assist- 
ed by the fi*esh batteries which came up with the re- 
serve. The enemy, thus furiously assailed in front, re- 
mained ignorant of Miller's approach till the bayonets 
of his column began to be felt. The rout was early 
and complete, a battery captured, and many prisoners 
made. 

Positions on the field had become reversed. The 
American line, reformed, now crossed that originally 



Incidents of the Battle. 143 

occupied by the enemy at right angles, and facing the 
wood, with backs to the river. Here it took a defen- 
sive stand. The British slowly rallied at some distance 
in front. Being again in collected force and in return- 
ing confidence, they cautiously advanced to recover the 
lost field and their battery — the horses of which had 
been killed or crippled before the retreat. By degrees 
the low commands, halt^ dress, forwa/rd ! often repeat- 
ed, became more and more audible in the awful still- 
ness of the moment. At length a dark line could be 
seen, at a distance, perhaps, of sixty paces. Scott re- 
solved to try an experiment. Leaving his brigade on 
the right, in line, he formed a small column of some 
two hundred and fifty men, and, at its head, advanced 
rapidly to pierce the advancing enemy's line, then to 
turn to the right, and envelop his extreme left. If 
pierced, in the dark, there seemed no doubt the whole 
would fall back, and so it turned out. Scott explained 
his intentions and forcibly cautioned his own brigade, 
and Ripley's on his left, not to fire upon the little col- 
umn ; but the instant the latter came in conflict with, 
and broke the enemy, Ripley's men opened fire upon 
its rear and left flank, and caused it to break without 



14-1: Incidents ContimuJ. 

securing a prisoner. The column resumed its place in 
line, and another pause in the battle ensued. 

After a while, a second advance of the enemy was 
made with the same slowness as before. When within 
shurt musket-shot, there was an unexpected halt, in- 
stantly followed by the crack of small arms and the 
deafening roar of cannon. Each party seemed resolved 
to rest the h(»pe of victory on its lire. The welkin was 
in a blaze with shells and rockets. Though both armies 
suflfered greatly, the enemy suffered most. The scene, 
perhaps, including accessories, has never been sur- 
passed. Governor Tompkins, with a keen perception 
of its splendor, said, in presenting a sword of honor to 
Scott : " The memorable conflict on the plains of Chip- 
pewa, and the appalling night-battle on the Heights of 
Niagara, are events which have added new celebrity 
to the spots where tliey happened, heightening the 
majesty of the stupendous cataract, by combining with 
its natural, all the force of the moral sublime." 

It was impossible that this conflict should be en- 
dured for more than a very few minutes. The lines at 
some points were separated by only eight or ten paces. 
Nothing but a deep, narrow gully intervened in front 
of the 25th Infantry. Scott, incpiiriug of the com- 



Heroism in the Ranks — Scott Hm's de Comlat. 145 

mander (Jesup) about a v*'ound (iu the liand) heard a 
call in the ranks — Cartridges ! At the same moment 
a man reeling to the ground, responded — Cartridges in 
my box! The two commanders flew to his succor. 
The noble fellow had become a corpse as he fell. In 
the next second or two Scott, for a time, as insensible, 
lay stretched at his side, being prostrated by an ounce 
musket ball through the left shoulder joint. He had 
been twice dismounted and badly contused, in the side, 
by the rebound of a cannon ball, some hours before. 
Two of his men discovering that there was yet life, 
moved him a little way to the rear, that he might not 
be killed on the ground, and placed his head behind a 
tree — his feet from the enemy. This had scarcely been 
done, when he revived and found that the enemy had 
again abandoned the field. Unable to hold up his 
head from the loss of blood and anguish, he was taken 
in an amhulance to the camp across the Chippewa, 
when tlie wound was stanched and dressed. 

On leaving the field he did not know that Major- 
General Brown, also wounded, had preceded him. By 
seniority the command of the army now devolved on 
Brigadier-General Ripley. It must then have been 
about midnight. Ripley, from some unknown cause, 



140 The Defeated Enemy Claim the Victory. 

became alarmed, and determined, in spite of dissuasion, 
to abandon the field, trophies, and all. The principal 
officers despatched a messenger to bring back Scott, 
but found him utterly prostrate. Toward day, some 
fragments of the enemy, seeking the main body, crossed 
the quiet field, and learning from the wounded that the 
Americans had flown, hastened to overtake Lieutenant- 
General Sir Gordon Drummond below, who returned, 
hwouacked on the field, and claimed the victory ! 



CHAPTEE XII. 

ffORS DE 6W5.42' — PKINCETON COLLEGE — PHILADELPHIA 
i BALTIMOEE WASHINGTON. 

The following morning (July 26) Scott— for the 
next forty-one years a major-general— embarked for 
Buffalo, witli some thirteen officers of liis brigade, all 
badly wounded. Among these were two of his three 
staff officers— Brigade-Major Smith, and Aide-de-Camp 
Worth ; Colonel Brady, one of the best soldiers and 
men of his day, etc., etc. The rowboat was large and 
unwieldy, and the soldiers (militiamen) selected as 
oarsmen, feeble and inexperienced ; for Scott would 
not allow any man, effective in the ranks, to volunteer 
for the service. Two of the consequences were that on 
leaving the mouth of the Chippewa the boat narrowly 



118 Sojourn at Batavia. 

escaped passing over the Falls, and next, the row up 
the river was most tedious and distressing. The rest 
at Buffalo was short, and also at Willianisville, eleven 
miles east. Here Scott was joined by Major-General 
Riall, badly wounded when captured, and his friend 
(worse wounded) Lieutenant-Colonel Juhn MoryUion 
Wilson,* one of tlie Cliippewa prisoners. 

These officers Scott placed on formal parole and ob- 
tained for them, from Government, as a special favor 
to himself, permission to return to England, after all 
like indulgences had ceased on the part of each belli- 
gerent. 

His forced sojourn was longer at Batavia, in the 

* This gallant oflicer, always (since) an invalid and friend of Scott, who 
was, in the time of William IV, in the liouschoki of the queen, and since 
in the government of Chelsea Hospital, still lives. lie invested his little 
savings and wife's dower in Mississippi bonds, repudiated, mainly, by Mi'. 
Jefferson Davis. It was Scott's strong statement of this interesting case, 
at the time, in a i)nblislied article, that brought ujiou him afterward the 
persecutions of Mr. Davis as Mr. Pierce's Secretary of War. When it is 
added, upon knoirfir/r/t; that the statements of Sir Phineas Riall and Sir 
Juhn Moryllion Wilson, on their return home, contributed not a little to 
the liberal instructions given to the British Commissioners who signed the 
Treaty of Ghent, perhaps it may not be extravagant or too late to say, 
that generous Americans should make up, to Wilson's family, their losses 
by the Mississippi repudiation. Our distinguished countr)Tnan, George 
Peabody, London, is their friend. 



Ovation — Convalescent. 141 > 

comfortable house of liis friend, Mr, Brisbane, where 
he was well nnrsed by the kindness of his excellent 
sister, afterward Mrs. Carev. But Batavia, exhausted 
of its comforts, became, in August, very sickly, and 
Scott's wounds were no better. For the same reason 
that he took the poor oarsmen, at Chippewa, he had 
selected an invalid surgeon for himself and wounded 
companions, who had not strength for hospital duty, 
and hardly enough to half dress the wounds of three 
officers twice a day. Without change, it became evi- 
dent that the senior could not live. He procured a 
litter, and hired eight men (two reliefs) to bear him on 
it ; but some of the principal citizens drove off the 
hirelings, and shouldered the litter themselves. It was 
thus, more than half dead, he was taken in triumph, 
by the gentlemen of the country, who relieved eacli 
other at tho edge of every town, some seventy miles, to 
the house at Geneva, of another dear friend, the Hon- 
orable John Xicholas. 

Here, besides the line air, were " all appliances and 
means to boot," needed by Scott, except the higher 
skill in surgery. To obtain this he was most anxious 
to reach Doctor Physick, at Philadelphia. 

Ha^dng by the kind nursing of Judge Nicholas's 



150 Grand Scene at Princeton. 

tiunily gained some strength, the new major-general 
was enabled to travel in an easy carriage, on a mat- 
tress, to Albany, where honors, as elsewhere, on the 
r(jad, awaited him, and thence he had the benefit of 
steam to Xew York, Here another long journey, on a 
mattress, was to be undertaken. At Princeton College 
(Nassau Hall) a very interesting scene occurred. The 
invalid chanced to arrive at that seat of learning on 
Commencement day in the midst of its exercises, and 
made a short halt for rest. He was scarcely placed on 
a bed when a deputation from the Trustees and Faculty 
did liiui the honor to bear him, almost by main strength, 
to the platform of their body. This was in the vener- 
able church where thousands of literary and scientific 
degrees had been conferred on pupils from all parts of 
the Union. The iloor and galleries were filled to 
overflowing Avith much of the intelligence, beauty, and 
fashion of a wide circle of the country. 

All united in clamorous greetings to the young 
wounded soldier (bachelor), the only representative 
that they had seen of a successful, n()l)le army. 

The emotion was overpowering. Seated on the 
platform, with the authorities, he had scarcely recov- 
ered from that bur^t of enthusiasm, when he was again 



Philadelphia — Dr. Fhysick, 151 

assailed with all the powers of oratory. The valedic- 
tory had heen assigned to the gifted and accomplished 
Bloomfield Mcllvaine, of the graduating class, the 
younger brother of the present most venerable bishop 
of Ohio. He had, without reference to any particular 
individual taken as his theme, the duty of a patriot 
citizen in time of war / in which soldiershi]) was made 
most prominent. In a whisper, he obtained at the 
moment, permission of the Faculty to give to the wdiole 
address, by a few slight changes, a personal application. 
Here again there was a storm of applause, no doubt in 
the greater part given to the orator. ^^ Finally the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts, conferred on the 
soldier, rounded off his triumphs of the day. 

Flattered and feeble, the soldier at length reached 
Philadelphia. Dr. Physick, eminent as a physician, 
more eminent as a surgeon, and not less distinguished 
as a patriot, left a sickroom, for the first time in 
months, with his most accomplished and amiable 
nephew. Dr. Dorsey, to visit and heal his new patient. 
Before this great effort of science had been accom- 
plished, Scott, in the command of the Philadelphia 

* Though Mr. Mcllvaine died very young, it was not before he had 
greatly distinguished himself at the Philadelphia Bar. 



lo2 Baltimore — Dr. Gibson — Gold Medal. 

Department (district) was, early in October, ere lie 
could walk or mount a Lorse without help, ordered 
to the district of Baltimore, then threatened with 
another joint attack by the army and fleet which had 
been so handsomely repulsed the month before. Here, 
Dr. Gibson, another eminent surgeon, at tlie end of 
some months, finally finished the case so happily com- 
menced, without fee or reward, in Philadelphia. 

Scott found a large force of militia assembled for 
tlie defence of Baltimore, which he was glad to dis- 
charge as the winter approached and the danger sub- 
sided. He visited, in the course of the winter, Wash- 
ington and Fredericksburg, threatened by the enemy, 
and, as at all the points further north, was handsomely 
[ijreeted and distino-uished. But the crowning honor 
was conferred upon him in a resolution penned by the 
accomplished and rising statesman, William Lowndes — 
in which it is ordered that a gold medal " be struck, 
with suitable emblems and devices, and presented to 
Major-General Scott in testimony of the high sense 
entertained by Congress of his distinguished services 
in the successive conflicts of Chippewa and Niagara 
(or LuJidy's Lane), and of his uniform gallantry and 
good conduct in sustaining the reputation of the arms 



Honored hy Congress — Board of Tactics. 153 

of the United States.''^ It is believed that tlie second 
clause of this resolution contains a compliment not be- 
stowed by Congress on any other officer whatever. 

Early in December, and before he had visited 
Washington, inquiries were made of him and his 
physician, whether he could bear the journey to New 
Orleans, in order to assist Major-General Jackson in 
the defence of the Mississippi delta. Dr. Gibson re- 
plied that the principal wound of his patient was 
still open, requiring the most critical treatment, and 
moreover that he had not yet the strength to .sustain a 
long journey. Thus the soldier of the ^Niagara lost the 
opportunity of sharing in Jackson's brilliant victories 
near New Orleans. He might in the beginning of the 
campaign, when he preferred the Northern frontier, 
have gone South if he had so chosen. But, as is said 
in Rasselas, " No man can, at the same time fill his 
cup from the source and from the mouth of tlie Nile." 

His headquarters remained in Baltimore. When 
his health had improved a little, he was called twice 
to Washington for consultation on plans of campaign 
for 1815, and under a resolution of Mr. Lowndes — 
who, tliough he " never set a squadron in the field," 
and experimentally knew nothing of " the division of 



lo4: Treaty of Peace. 

a battle," was, as his correspondence with Scott showed, 
well acquainted with the sulgect — the latter was made 
])resident of a hoard of tactics, with, as associates, Brip;- 
adier-General Swift, Colonels Fenwick, Drayton, and 
Cunnning. 

About the same time he was appointed president of 
a conrt of inquiry in the case of Brigadier-General 
Winder. Both bodies sometimes met, at different 
liours, the same day. The treaty of peace arrived 
before the tactics were quite iinishcil. Tlie war was 
at an end. Scott's breast was violently agitated by 
opposite currents of feeling — joy for the country, whose 
finances were exhausted ; disappointment at being cut 
ofi' from another campaign in the rank of lieutenant- 
general ; for it was in contemplation to confer that 
grade on Brown, Jackson, and himself. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EEDUGTION OF THE ARMY VISIT TO EUROPE ENGLAND 

FKAJSrCE. 

* 

The army had now to be reduced to a peace estab- 
lishment — from, nommallj, some sixty-five thousand, 
to ten thousand men ; that is, we had officers for the 
larger number, but the regiments, as in the campaigns, 
were still skeletons. The reduction could not fail to 
fall heavily on the commissioned officers, as less than 
one in six could be retained in service. 

The board, ordered for this painful duty met in 
May, 1815, and consisted of the six general ofiicers 
previously selected by the President for the new estab- 
lishment, viz, : Major-Generals Brown and Jackson, 
with four brigadiers, each a major-general by brevet — 



150 Reduction of the Army. 

Scott, Gaines, Macomb, and Ripley. Jackson and 
Gaines did not appear at all, and Brown arrived after 
the board had made good progress in its labors. In 
the mean time Scott had presided. 

Mr. Monroe, since the previous autumn, had been 
alternately Secretary of State and acting Secretary of 
War, or the reverse. Wise, firm, patriotic, and inde- 
fatigable in the performance of ever}' duty, his strength 
at length gave way. The Secretary of tlic Treasury, 
the Honorable Alexander J, Dallas, without neglecting 
one of its duties became acting Secretary of War, and 
it was under his judicious instructions that the board 
reduced the army. He it was, also, who put the new 
establishment in operation as smoothly as if he had 
been all his life a soldier. The autobiographer has 
known men as able as Mr. Dallas, but never one who 
combined so much talent for the despatch of business, 
with the graces of a gentleman and scholar. 

At the ratification of tlie treaty of peace there was 
a strong inclination on the part of some members of 
Congress to make Scott Secretary of War, which he 
discouraged, emphatically, and next to engage him to 
act in that capacity, until the arrival of the new Secre- 
tary, Mr. Crawford, from his mission to France. This 



Sails for Eurojpe. 157 

proposition lie also declined from a feeling of delicacy 
toward his seniors, Major-Generals Brown and Jack- 
son, who wonld, nominally, have been under the com- 
mand of the acting secretary. 

At length, charged with limited diplomatic func- 
tions, for the execution of which on his return home, 
he was handsomely complimented by the Executive, 
Scott sailed for Europe, July 9, 1815, before the news 
of the battle of "Waterloo had reached America. That 
great event burst upon him on the arrival (in eighteen 
days) at Liverpool, together with the astounding fact 
that Napoleon was a prisoner of war in an English 
port. After a partial glance at England, Scott hasten- 
ed to cross the channel to see the assembled troops of 
Europe, for la helle France did not then belong to 
Frenchmen. A great nation, exhausted by the vic- 
tories of mad ambition, had, in its turn, become con- 
quered and subdued. 

It was authenticallv ascertained that the foreio^n 
armies in France amounted to live hundred thousand 
men, besides another hundred thousand hovering about 
the frontiers. Nearly all these troops Scott saw re- 
viewed at different points. 

Dipping a little into society — French, Dutch, Gei'- 



158 Galleries and Ualls of the Louvre. 

man, and Italian, as well as English and Scotch — when 
returning homeward ; — visiting theatres and libraries ; 
glancing at the wonders of architecture, sculpture, and 
painting ; — seeing a little of the interior of Oxford and 
Cambridge, and paying devotion to many scenes of 
historic f;uiie — not one of which objects need be here 
described, tirst, because that lias been done by scores 
of better pens ; and next, because this is not a book of 
travels — Scott recrossed the Atlantic in 1816, a little 
improved both in knowledge and patriotism. 

There were, however, a few incidents in his rapid 
tour, a slight notice of which (the greater number 
being more or less connected with America) may be 
interesting to his countrymen. 

It was the fortune of the American to be almost 
daily in the galleries and halls of the Louvre, for 
weeks, immediately preceding the restoration of the 
foreign objects of the fine arts — trophies of French 
victories — where the frequent spectacle of emperors, 
kings, princes, dukes, marshals, and the rest of the 
elite of Europe, male and female, were seen passing 
along, as if in review, admiring the chefs-d''a!tivre to 
the riglit and left. First came Alexander, as affable 
and courteous as a candidate for office, and his brother 



Fdite of Eurojpe — Female Artists. 159 

emperor, Francis, grave to sadness. He had received 
heavy afflictions from the arms of France ; had shifted 
sides at a critical moment, making his daughter a 
political widow, and his grandson, Napoleon II., an 
alien to France. These were ample grounds for shame 
and sorrow. The King of Prussia, too, had his griefs ; 
was glum, incapable of any lively emotion, and goaded 
by his people to acts of revenge. Old Blucher, always 
by his side, had made secret preparations for blowing 
up the bridge of Jena, a beautiful object of art and of 
the greatest value to Parisians. Baron Humboldt, long 
a resident of Paris, and master of the civilization of 
the age ; — high in the pride of all Prussians, and the 
associate of crowned heads, hastened to the king and 
implored that the hand of the barbarian might be 
stayed — adding, if not, he would, in shame, renounce 
liis country for ever. The bridge was saved by a few 
minutes. 

During the weeks in question, no person, born in 
France, was seen in the Louvi'e, save a few female 
artists mounted on high steps, busily engaged in copy- 
ing some of the master paintings before their early de- 
parture. These jpatriotes did not condescend to glance 
at the movino- world below — all enemies of France. 



ICO CorintJiian Ilorsets. 

Even the passing compliments of Alexander met witli 
no response from one of tliem in word or look. 

Tlie dismounting of tlie Corinthian horses from the 
triumphal arch, in the Place du Carrousel^ to be sent 
back to Venice, was also witnessed. On this occasion, 
the autobiographer said to his friend standing by him, 
the Honorable Thomas Boiling Robertson — a descend- 
ant of Pocohontas, a member of Congress from Louisi- 
ana, and otherwise distinguished — " Yery well ; these 
wonders in bronze, have already made jom-neys and 
clianged masters several times, and as 

' Westward the course of empire takes its waj',' 

they, may, in time, adorn the capital of om* country." 
That prediction has already been sadly defeated by the 
existing rebellion in tlie United States ! 

Scott corresponded with, though he failed to see, 
the venerable Kosciuszko ; — spent some days at La 
Grange, on a visit to General La Fayette, dear to all 
Americans. He made the acquaintance of several of 
Rochambeau's officers who were at the surrender of 
Cornwallis — among them the venerable and distin- 
guished Count de Segur, the elder, author of the me- 
moirs of the greatest interest, in three volumes, the 



Humooldt — Barhe Marhois. 161 

second of which is devoted to America. The Baron 
Humboldt, who had visited the United States, and who 
took a lively interest in the cause of freedom, did the 
autobiographer the honor to make him several visits 
of usefulness — to spread his acquaintance among liter- 
ary and military men — himself a man of the world, 
and a most instructive companion. Master of many 
languages, he, in rapid conversation, unconsciously, 
mixed up several of them in the most amusing man- 
lier. 

Another highly interesting acquaintance, made in 
Paris, was Barbe Marbois, who accompanied, as con- 
sul-o-eneral, the first French minister to the United 
States. Being a moderate liberal, he was now (1815) 
minister of justice. His very amiable daughter, the 
wife of the Due de Plaisance (Lebrun, third consul in 
1Y99), who presided at his hospitable board, was half 
American — lier deceased mother having been a Phila- 
delphian. M. Marbois gave to Major-General Scott 
many anecdotes of the Congressional Government of 
the United States, some of which may appear in this 
narrative — the greater number having been published 
by Sevelinge from the portfolio of M. Girard, the min- 
ister. M. Marbois had some time before published his 



i&J. Burn'nyj of Washington — EiKjlish Celch'at/ion. 

Conspiration d^ Arnold^ a copy of wliicli he presented 
to the American. 

An event of poignant interest to Americans oc- 
curred in September. The British troops were all 
quartered in and about Paris. Some of the regiments 
that assisted, under that freebooter,* Admiral Cock- 
burn, and the gentlemanly, but pliant General Koss, 
in burning the civil edifices at Washington — the Capi- 

* This is a harsh term to apply to an officer of high rank ; but Cock- 
burn made war a trade of profit as well as of vengeance, in the true bar- 
barian spirit of Lord Bathurst's letter to Prevost, given above. The late 
J. S. Skinner, Esq., of Baltimore, chanced to be at Ross's headquarters, 
under a flag of truce, when a sailor reported that he had discovered some 
hogsheads of tobacco in the barn of a farmer. The indignant general re- 
plied : " Begone ! I'm no freebooter Uke Cockburn ! ! " This admiral 
had been living ashore at free quarters for some time, in General Greene's 
last residence, Dungenness, Cumberland Island, Georgia, when the pub- 
lished treaty of peace was received, early in March, 1815. Cockburn 
prepareil to return to his flagship. Mrs. Shaw, the widowed daughter of 
the great general, said to Cockburn : " Your servants are packing up all 
my plate — silver urns, pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, etc., etc." " The 
servants," he replied, " have mistaken their orders. My steward shall 
correct the error." In a short time she flew to him again, to say: 
" There goes, in the boxes leaving the door, every piece of my plate — 
presentations to my father, and all ! " " Madam, on board, your property 
shall be carefully separated from mine and sent back." Nevertheless, the 
whole was carried off", together with some of her colored servants, who, no 
doubt, were Sold in some of the British West India Islands ! This story 
the autobiographer had from Mrs. Shaw herself, at Dungennes.s, in 1826. 



Celebration of English Vandalistn. 163 

tol, the President's mansiou, and other executive build- 
ings — hit upon the pleasant conceit — being in the occu- 
pancy of the capital of Eui'ope, to celebrate, in it, the 
anniversary of their vandalism in the capital of Amer- 
ica. Accordingly, full of their " laudable ignominy," 
the officers of those regiments founded a grand enter- 
tainment, to which were invited many principal officers 
of the same army, including the Duke of Wellington, 
together with a thick sprinkling of French hungry cour- 
tiers, recently back from a long emigration, and all, of 
course, idolizers of British troops. 

It is not now distinctly recollected whether the 
great duke was present or not. The documents are 
not at hand. He certainly did not interdict the cele- 
bration, nor warn his officers not to make a vaunt of 
their shame in respect to the burnings. 

The founders and their guests, had it all in their 
own way. Forgetting that Washington had no defend- 
ers when Cockburn and Ross approached, except mobs 
of militia, hastily collected, — but half of whom had had 
time to obtain arms, or to learn the names of their 
officers ; — forgetting, too, how British troops had been, 
the year before, repeatedly beaten and dispersed in 
Canada, and (still later) repulsed and disgraced at 



164 Retaliation. 

New Orleans — poor Americans! how shockingly were 
they maltreated by those Washington heroes, and their 
friends ! Such victories, however, aside from " the 
iron harvest of the field," are, l)ut a cheap indulgence. 
• Fired with indignation, the Americans at hand re- 
solved on a retaliation. It was the general wish to 
select the anniversary of some conflict in which Scott 
had been a principal. To this he objected, begging a 
postponement to the New Orleans victory — the 8th of 
January. As the time approached, grand prejjarations 
were made. The Hotel Robert, Rue Grange Battel- 
liere, where the sovereigns habitually hobnobbed before 
they dispersed homeward, was selected as the place of 
meeting. A sumptuous dinner for seventy Americans 
besides their guests, to be served on silver and by wait- 
ers in livery, was ordered. The ostentation was in- 
tended to give increased publicity to the occasion, and 
for the same purpose, the Americans everywhere, 
dropped the exi)ectatloii — many, the liope^ of being 
jostled ; for that Hotel continued to be the resort of 
the liiglier English, and " the bucks and bloods " of 
the English army. 

The morning of the dinner. Count "Woronzow — 
lieutenant-general and aide-de-camp to the Emperor 



American Dinner^ January 8, 165 

Alexander ; also then commander of tlie forty thousand 
Russians, part of tlie foreign army of occupation (one 
hundred and fifty thousand) under the Duke of Wel- 
lington — chanced to make one of his agreeable calls 
upon Scott. Through an accidental opening of the 
bedroom door, he caught a view of the American's 
uniform, and being young, playful, and tall, he seized 
upon the coat, put it on, and with the companion-sword 
in hand, charged about the apartment, and slew British 
troops in much finer style than the weapon had ever 
known before. The acting was perfect. 

The ventilation of the uniform led to the story of 
the provocative and retaliatory dinners, and to the re- 
mark that a possible conflict might ensue; for Lord 
Hill's quarters, with a battalion of troops, were nearly 
opposite to the Hotel Eobert. The Russian impulsive- 
ly ofiered to send a battalion of the emperor's guards 
to protect the meeting. On a little reflection Scott 
declined the distinguished honor, as it would almost 
certainly have caused a coolness, if not something more 
grave, between the count and his commander, the Duke 
of Wellington.* 

* It was at the same visit that his Kussian friend gave to Scott this 
anecdote: — "After exiling Napoleon to Elba, in 1814, the allied sovereigns 



1C6 Alexander's Vontcmjyt, etc. 

Tlie xVmericans, in a respectable column entered 
the hotel, and mounted the grand staircase. Scott, 
Colonels Drayton, McRae, Thayer, Archer, etc., etc., 
in uniform, with swords by their sides, and some others 
with pistols in pocket. The crowd was as great as 
usual in the evening ; but not a jostle, interruption, or 
insult was experienced. Scott presided, assisted by the 
principal officers named, and Mr. Jackson, late United 
States' Charge d'Aff'aires, but not accredited to Louis 
XVIII at this time. A band of music gave the na- 
tional airs of America and France. The cloth being 
removed, the toasts followed in quick succession : — 
Our Country ; the President of the United States ; 
Memory of Washington ; La Fayette (then sick in bed), 
and nine others. The Fifth was : — Major-General 
Jackson and his heroic army^ wJw, this day a year ago, 

went over to England to make the regent (subsequently George IV.), a 
visit. The latter had prepared a naval combat, on the Serpentine River, 
between a British and an American frigate (diminutives) for his imperial 
and royal guests — Brother Jonathan, in a " fir frigate, with a bit of bunt- 
ing for a flag," stood the distant fire pretty well ; but when John Bull laid 
his ship alongside, poor Jonathan struck his bunting and ran below ! The 
regent, etc., were charmed with the victory, when the Emperor Alexander 
whispered into the ear of his aid, Woronzow : ' This is contemptible — 
when an American sloop-of-war, on the coast of Ireland, and an American 
privateer in the chaimel, arc sinking or destroying scores of British vessels.' " 



American Toasts — Censorship). 167 

near New Orleans, defeated thrice their nunibers of the 
hest British troops, commcmded hy Sir Edward PaJ^en- 
ham, the hrother-in-laio of the Dxike of Wellington ! 

This toast, introduced witli some sharp remarks, by 
Scott, on the provocation tliat had led to the dinner, 
was drank with the utmost enthusiasm, and the com- 
pany dispersed at a reasonable hour, in perfect order 
and quietness. 

A report, in French, of the meeting and toasts, 
specially stating the provocation, was drawn up and 
sent by a committee to the Constitutionnel (a liberal 
paper) for insertion. M. Le Censeur of the press, a 
crabbed old emigre, running his spectacled eyes down 
the page came upon the great disparity of the belliger- 
ent forces, at New Orleans, and the statement that the 
defeated commander was the brother-in-law of the Duke 
of Wellington, when he gutted the toast of the " peril- 
ous stuff" that could not fail to give offence to the 
English. The toast in compliment to La Fayette was 
by this ofBcial, entirely expunged — frankly saying the 
French Press was not open to the praise of that patriot 
hero. In revenge, Scott, at the cost of a few guineas, 
caused the uuexpurgated report to be published in a 
London paper. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ENGLAND — LONDON BATH. 



Soon after the dinner, Scott recrossed the channel. 
The second Adams was then the honored American 
minister in London, who showed every attention to his 
soldier countrymen, and of whom more will be said in 
the sequel. 

Under the self-imposed restrictions, given above, 
the autobiographer has but few more European occur- 
rences to add to this narrative. 

The English Parliament was in session. Among 
other distinguished persons, Scott dined several times 
with Lord Holland — high in literature, high as a 
political leader, and, like his illustrious uncle, Charles 



A Grand Dinner. 169 

James Fox, a decided friend to " the cause of freedom 
tliroughout the world." 

Persons of like sentiments and liberal pursuits, of 
whatever country, were easily admitted into his family 
circle ; for Lady Holland, an American, had also hig-h 
gifts and accomplishments. At one of those dinners, 
present several of the higher nobles, and the more dis- 
tincruished commoners — Sir James Mackintosh and 
Sir Samuel Komilly (both of whoin were very kind to 
Scott on many occasions), an incident occurred, too 
characteristic of English feeling toward America, at 
the time, to be omitted. 

This particular dinner was given in special com- 
pliment to the Earl of Lauderdale, who had a near 
relative at table, unknown to Scott, the captain that 
received Napoleon on board the Eellerophon. The 
naval officer, loud and rude as Boreas at sea; but 
coming up to London, as a " blood," fell under the 
fashionable code of Bond Street, and had to lisp and 
mince words, to stammer between syllables, and even 
letters in the same word, like the rest of the coxcombs 
of the day. When the ladies had retired, this fop in- 
quired of Scott, whether " the Americans continued to 
build line-of-battle ships, and to call them frigates ? " 



lie Naval Anecdote — Bath, 

Any^^'Ilere else the offensive question would have been 
very differently answered. The American bit his lips 
and replied : '' We have borrowed a great many ex- 
cellent things from the mother country, and some that 
discredit both parties — among the latter is the practice 
in question. Thus when 3'ou took, from France, the 
Guerriere, she mounted forty -nine guns, and you in- 
stantly rated her on your list a thirty-six gun frigate ; 
but when we captured her from you, we found on 
l)oard the same number, forty-nine guns ! " " General 
Scott," said the Earl of Lauderdale, " I am delighted 
with your reply to my kinsman. Please take a glass 
of wine with me." 

A short visit to Bath was not without interest. 
Amons: his letters of introduction, Scott had one to 
John Parish, Esq., of that city, whose son David, a 
resident of Philadelphia, had been the agent of certain 
Dutch and Hanseatic bankers, in loans to the United 
States, to an amount of half the expenditure of the 
recent war with Great Britain. The father, an octoge- 
narian, had, in fifty years, as a merchant at Hamburg, 
made an ample fortime, and now lived in a superior 
style among the throng of dowager ladies, half-pay 
generals, and admirals who constituted the resident 



Meeting with a Tory American Txidy. 171- 

population of that remarkable city. He had contrived 
to send to America, during the Kevolutionary War, 
many cargoes of arms, ammunition, and clothing, and 
subsequently became consul of the United States. His 
obsolete commission as such, in frame, signed by 
President Washington, hung conspicuously in one of 
his apartments. General Bonaparte, about to sign the 
preliminary treaty of Campo Formio, chanced to re- 
member La Fayette, then three years in an Austrian 
dungeon (Olmutz), and withheld the pen until a formal 
order was given, by the Emperor Francis, for the lib- 
eration of the Franco- American patriot. He was per- 
sonally delivered to Mr. Parish, American Consul. 

Another introductory letter from a belle of Phila- 
delphia, to her great aunt. Lady J., wife of Sir Henry 
Johnson, Baronet, residing at Bjath, and a senior gen- 
eral of the British army, led to an interview which, at 
this distant day, cannot be recalled without emotion. 
This lady, in 1TT9, and some years before, was, as Miss 
Franks, the belle of Philadelphia — handsome, witty, 
and an heiress. She was also high in toryism and 
eccentricity. Many amusing sarcasms of hers, levelled 
at revolutionary men of eminence, were in circulation 
in Philadelphia down to the autobi6grapher's early 



172 Tlte Ladij and General Charles Lee. 

days. One of them, of a practical nature, was too 
offensive to be amusing. Mrs. General Washington 
gave a ball to the French minister, M. Girai'd, in honor 
of the recent alliance between Louis XYI. and the 
United States, which had led the Americans to unite 
the cockades of the two countries — white and black. 
Miss Franks caused this token of alliance to be tied to 
the neck of a dog, and 1)V a bribe to a servant, got the 
animal, thus decorated, tnrned into the ball room. 

The equally eccentric, Major-General Charles Lee, 
Avore, in the saddle, long pantaloons lined from the 
crotch to the ankle with buckskin to prevent abrasion 
— after that example, much worn in America by mili- 
tary men down to within forty-five years. Miss Franks 
charged that they were " green breeches, patched with 
leather." In his celebrated reply "■•■ to her, filled with 
coarse wit and humor, he denies the patching, and adds 
that his pantaloons are " legitimate sherry vallies, such 
as his majesty of Poland wears" — on whose personal 
staff he had recently served. 

This l)rilliant young lady married, about this time, 
Major Johnson, a British officer, made prisoner at the 

* See his Life and Memoirs, New York, 1813, and Memoirs of the Life, 
etc., London, 1792. Both anonymous. 



♦ Sequel of the Meeting. 1'73 

capture of Stony Point (of which he was the command- 
er) and sent to Philadelphia. In 1816 she had become, 
from bad health, prematurely old— a very near ap- 
proach to a ghost, but with eyes still bright, and other 
remains of her former self. 

On the receipt of the letter of introduction, Lady 
J. despatched her amiable husband— a fine old soldier, 
to fetch the stranger. Scott, as has been seen, was 
fortunately a little acquainted with her eccentric man- 
ner. She had been rolled out in an easy chair to receive 
him. On presentation, he was transfixed by her eager, 
but kindly gaze. " Is this the young rebel ! " were her 
first words. " My dear, it is your countryman ! " etc., 
said Sir Henry, fearing that Scott might take ofi'ence. 
"Yes, it is," she quickly added, "the young rebel; 
and you have taken the liberty to beat his majesty's 
troops." Scott, by a pleasant word or two, parried the 
impeachment as well as he could ; but the lady followed 
up the accusation, with specific references, which sur- 
prised not a little. Scott soon found himself seated by 
her side, Avith a hand clasped in both of hers— cold and 
clammy, as in the article of death. Taking a sudden 
turn, she exclaimed, with emphasis : " I have gloried 
in my rebel countrymen ! " Then pointing to heaven. 



174 Seqiiel^ etc. 

witli botli bauds, slie added, in a most affecting tone : 
" Would to God I, too, bad been a patriot." A gentle 
remonstrance was interposed by tbe busband, wbo liad 
been carried away by sympathy up to tbis moment. 
Turning now upon bim, sbe said, with tbe earnestness 
of trutb : " I do not, I bave never regretted my mar- 
riage, No woman was ever blessed with a kinder, a 
better busband ; but I ought to liave been a j)atriot 
before marriage." Hers were the only dry eyes of tbe 
party. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

REFLECTIONS ON PEACE AND WAR THE CANKER ABOLI- 
TIONISM STATE RIGHTS NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

As lias been said, the aiitobiograplier returned home 
in 1816, Avhen he resumed his duties in the army. 
Thence to the Mexican War, in 1816, there is a gap 
of thirty years to be bridged over in this narrative. 
In this long interval he was not idle, and a few of its 
scenes and events with which he was connected will be 
sketched in this narrative. 

Always preferring peace to unnecessary, and of 
course to unjust wars, he never made his own the dis- 
tracted cry of poor Constance, in King John : 

" War ! war ! no peace ! peace is to me a war ! " 



176 Peace and War. 

Yet, perhaps, tlie thesis might plausibly be main- 
tained that war is the normal or natural state of man. 
ITomo homini hqjus.^ 

Amid the woods the tiger knows his kind, 
The panther preys not on the panther brood, 
Man only is the common foe to man.f 

Milton sings: 

Peace hath her victories 

No less renown' d than war. 

This fine couplet, addressed to the great warrior 
and statesman — the Lord General, Cromwell — often 
quoted by civilians as a taunt to soldiers, will not, in 
that sense, bear a philosophic analysis ; for what has 
been accomplished in peace, that might not have been 
as well done in a state of war? Sunday schools, Bible 
societies, missions to the heathen, vaccination, the steam 
engine, the electric telegraph, etc., are the great human 
triumphs of recent times. Several of these blessings 
had, as is known, their beginning and maturity in time 
of war; and what a flood of Christian light followed, 
and is likely to follow, the recent march of European 
armies into the interior of China? And Shakspeare, 

* Erasmus. f Motto to Caleb Williams. 



Origin of Political AhoUtionism. 177 

the deepest of Imman observers, recognizes " tlie can- 
kers of a calm world and long peace," Perhaps, an 
occasional interlude oi foreign war may be even neces- 
sary to the moral health of a people rapidly increasing 
in population, wealth, and luxurious indulgences. 

In this interval of peace, certain speculative, moody 
minds at the " North, Northeast, and by East," * like 
Loyola, brooding over their want of occupation or use- 
fulness — and being as tired of prosperity as Athenian 
demagogues were with the name of Aristides the just y 
— these dreamers, struck out the idea of abolishing, at 
" one fell swoop," negro slavery in the other half of the 
Union. By a singular aptitude this idea coalesced at 
once with religious fanaticism, when a " charm of pow- 
erful trouble " became " firm and good." The ambitious 
leaders of a political party eagerly made court to this 
great and growing element of strength ; succeeded in 
the wooing, and were placed at its head. 

Now it is the nature of a new hallucination to shut 
out from the mind facts and principles — everything 
that conflicts with the one ruling idea. Hence the work 
of agitation now went bravely on. The fact was 
entirely ignored that slavery, in several States, was 

* Shakspeare. 



ITS BecJdessness of Abolitionism. 

liappily undergoing a gradual but sure amelioration, 
and could not tail to be more and more spontaneously 
accelerated, without the danger of reaction, if it were 
left to God's own time to educe good from evil, 
in his own way. So were forgotten that His great 
work — even the creation of the world — was one of 
time and deliberation, instead of a simple fiat, whicli, 
if He liad pleased, would liave been all sufficient ; — 
that more years were allowed to intervene between 
the promise made to Abraham and the ad\ent of our 
Saviour, than Africans had been in America — the 
chosen people of God being, meanwhile, slaves in 
Egypt and Babylon ; — that the monarch oak and lofty 
pine — fit " to be the mast of some great ammiral " — 
require centuries to mature them ; — forgetting, too, that, 
as has just been shown, hundreds of years, more or less, 
are in divine estimation, but as a moment in the Hfc 
of a people or race of men ; — forgetting all those high 
considerations, the reckless reformers rushed in " where 
angels " might " fear to tread," at the imminent peril 
of setting owners and slaves to the mutual slaughter 
of men, women, and children of the opposite color. 
That this would have happened, since the rebellion, no 
white woman, in putting her children to bed would 



Folly of the South. 179 

have doubted,-but for the wide spread of troops. Union 
and Confederate, over the South ; and, indeed, a like 
danger and a like nervous apprehension existed — not 
without cause, in Southern families— created by exter- 
nal, pragmatic missions and missiles— beginning some 
twenty-odd years before. 

The first great error of the South, after the agita- 
tion began, was, in causing abolition petitions to be 
laid upon the table in Congress, instead of referring 
them to committees for due consideration and respect- 
ful reports on the same. The alleged ground of this 
treatment was, that the petitioners asked for what Con- 
gress had no power, under the Constitution, to grant. 
Ao-reed; but why not have allowed a committee (or 
committees) to find that foct and solemnly report that 
finding ? Such report— say from Mr. Adams, who was 
prepared so to report— would have taken from aboli- 
tionists more than half of the fuel needed to keep up 
their excitement to fever heat; for the abstract right 
of petition had, by the events immediately preceding 
the revolution, become hallowed, more particularly in 
the public mind of the New England States. Thus 
action and reaction, error and outrage went on, each 
producing its like — Caliban, his Caliban — as certainly 



180 Desolation of the South — Evils iii the Noi'th. 

as if tlie propagation had been commanded in the 
hook of Genesis. And, unhappily, the parties seem 
still (January, 1864), as desperately bent as ever, on 
playing out the game — All for Hate, or the World 
well Zost.^ Hence " all our woe." 

Now it cannot be doul)ted that if it had pleased 
God, but a few years before, to have taken away only 
some ten or fifteen of those zealots from one half of the 
Union, and as many of the hot-brained Southerners — 
mainly intent on president-making and the increase 
of slave property — the South would not already be a 
scene of general desolation — one " house of mourning ; " 
— nor the North filled ^vitll widow^s, orphans, cripples, 
and another evil of large dimensions — swarms of rich 
contractors — many of them fraudulent — whose low 
manners, high pretensions, pomp and extravagance, 
excite the contempt of the philosophic, the pity of tlie 
good and envy of legions of weak-minded men and 
women. 

But tin'.-; inductive history of present calamities 
would be incomplete — nay, unjust, without a further 
glance at men and measures hostile to the Union — of 

* " AH for Love, or llic World well Lost " — the title of Dryden'a 
Antony and Cleopatra. 



Johnsoii's Homage to Mm-'tial Prowess. 181 

an earlier period. The stream of bitter waters, here 
alhided to, had its source in the connection of Presi- 
dent Washington and his tirst Secretary of State, Mr. 
Jefferson. 

Dr. Johnson has supposed Socrates and Charles 
XII. of Sweden, to address an assembly of" some pride 
of cliaracter. The great founder of moral science, with 
persuasive eloquence, commends the beauty of virtue. 
The heroic Swede, in ]iis turn, draws his sword and 
flashing it in the eyes of the multitude, calls out — Fol- 
low me and lets dethrone the Czar I Johnson doubts 
whether many listeners would remain with Socrates. 

The same moralist puts another case to illustrate 
the same feeling, which he holds to be quite common 
in the breasts of men. Lord Mansfield is brought into 
a circle with a Blake or a Marlborough, and is made 
to feel, in such presence, that his learned decrees on 
the bench, and terse eloquence in the Senate, are of 
but little worth. 

There is, no doubt, much exaggeration, but a basis 
of nature, in those illustrations. Hence, as revolution- 
ary worthies assured the autobiographer fifty and 
sixty years ago, Mr, Jefferson, the author of the 
Declaration of Independence — highly ambitious; a 



182 Jelf'ersonh Opposition to y\'asJun<jton. 

man of genius, of literary culture, and with a fine turn 
for philosophic inquiries — always felt himself uneasy — 
nay, rebuked — in the presence of "Washington — not so 
much at his calm dignity, wise statesnienship, and 
moral weight of character; as at the recollection of 
his being the great general and hero in the war that 
achieved independence. To recover himself from the 
painful sense of inferiority, Mr. Jeffereon was forced to 
set up an opposition, and leave the cabinet, wlien his 
party pretended to find that man is too much governed ; 
that property, and liberty, with law and order, had 
nothing to fear from popular judges and universal 
suffrage; that Washington had imparted too much 
centripetal force to the Union — to meet which they 
opposed the centrifugal tendency, or the doctrine of 
State RigJits — the first fruits of which have been seen 
in nullification — almost identical with rebellion ; both 
in part, the posthumous works of Mr. Jefterson. 

Mr. Calhoun, of pure morals and higli intellect — 
only a little too much imbued with metaphysics — fol- 
lowed in the same career, not from the beginning of 
his political life, but was forced into it by circum- 
stances. No one was more eminently conservative* 

* Mr. Calhoun's mind bad a strong tendency to extremes. lie was, at 



Jackson Drives Calhoun into State Bights. 183 

in politics till after his election to tlie vice-presidency, 
wlien President Jackson (toward whom he always 
stood in awe) learned that he had, as Secretary of 
War, in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, suggested the hero's 
recall — ^perhaps, punishment, by a com-t martial, for 
the conquest of Middle Florida during a state of pro- 
found peace with Spain. This late discovery of a meri- 
torious act, brought down upon the second functionary 
of tlie Government the utmost wrath of the first. 

There was no recovery from this blight, but, as it 
seemed to Mr. Calhoun, in an abrupt dhange of party. 
Accordingly, to recover himself, he took refuge in State 
nights ^ stereotyped the doctrine on the Southern mind, 
and hence nullification, and next rebellion. 

As to the abstract right of man to hold any human 
being in slavery, except in the way of punishment for 
established crime, the sentiment of the civilized world 



first, in favor of making, by the authority and at the expense of the United 
States, Appian highways from the centre to the frontiers in every direc- 
tion ; of a high tariff and a bank of the United States. To illustrate his 
genius and early doctrine, this anecdote may be added : — At a dinner of 
six or eight, all officers of the army, but himself, he spoke of the party 
contests at the beginning of this century, and continued : " When the 
Republicans, headed by Mr. Jefferson, stormed and carried the citadel of 
Government, in 1801, they were not such fools as to spike the guns." 



1 84 Slave ry — Jimancijjation. 

is fast waxing to unanimity on the negative side of tlie 
proposition. The recent abolition of serfdom in Russia 
was a mighty stride in that direction, and it may at 
this time be safely assumed that all the chairs of moral 
philosophy throughout Christendom, except, perhaps, a 
very small number in slaveholding countries^ deny all 
claim of right on the part of masters. But as to the 
manner of mitigating, to extinction, the evil of negro 
slavery, — whether by degrees, more or less slow or fast, 
or at once, in districts where it actually exists, in masses 
— these are ver<' different questions, involving difficul- 
ties within difficulties. 

There is no intention of doing more, in this place, 
than to glance, very slightly, at some of those points, 
not developed in the foregoing pages, nor fully in the 
autobiographer's recorded views (liis Atkinson letter) 
on the same subject, published in newspapers in 1843, 
reproduced in Mansfield's able work, and which paper 
may be repeated in these memoirs. From those sources 
it \\-ill plainly appear that the autobiographer's wishes 
have been to hasten emancipation only as fast as might 
be found compatible with tJie safety of hoth races. 

The color of the American slave is the first difficul- 
ty. When a Ilonum placed the cap of liberty on the 



1 



Evils of Ahruj/t Abolition. 185 

head of liis white shive, the latter, himself, or at least 
his children, readily passed into the general population 
without any brand of former servitude upon him. Kot 
so with the negro freedman. His color will always he 
certain evidence that he, or his progenitors, had once 
worn the yoke of the white man. 

Immediate and wholesale abolition of negro slavery 
cannot be dismissed without a few additional remarks. 
In this war, how many hundreds of thousands have 
already been liberated— men, women, and children— 
and are now fed and clothed by the United States, be- 
sides the colored troops who are also receiving pay as 
such ; and how many millions of the same people, the 
Government may, in all, take under its wing by the 
close of the war— it would, it is thought, be difficult to 
say within a million. The numbers will be numberless. 
How long will these be paid, lodged, clothed, and fed 
in like manner with those first named ? And, in the 
end— where colonized, and how distant the colony? 
Transportation is a heavy item of cost. Is the territory 
obtained or designated t The climate and soil — are 
they good or bad? How make those work, who have, 
for a time, lived without labor, and who have never 
worked except when compelled by a master? And 



186 Pragmatists Revolt the South. 

last and mightiest — bow discliarge tlie grand aggi-egate 
cost of such operations — inchiding that of the conquer- 
ing armies ? "With all the gold mines known to com- 
merce in its possession, Government could not, in 
half a century, reduce that mountain of debt, that has 
been piled up in less than three years. 

Once more — a parting glance, in the way of con- 
trast, at the system of gradual emancipation, with the 
actual system — immediate abolitionism. 

In about sixty years, counting from (say) 1833, 
but for the pragmatists alluded to — Delaware, Mary- 
land, Yirginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
and Missouri, would have been, in all human prob- 
ability, free States, and those farther South, by the 
force of exanij)le, must, in the mean time, have en- 
tered on the same career of wisdom and humanity. 
Yirginia in 1831-'2, it ouglit to be remembered, came 
within a vote of carrying the system at the first trial, 
and wanted but a little more time to have brought over 
to its support an overwhelming majority ; but just then, 
as has been noticed above, petitions to Congress, and 
missions, and missiles of violence to the negroes, agi- 
tated and revolted the whole South. 

By the gradual system, of which — honor to him 



J/"/'. Jefferson — Oxenstiern—Riifus King. 187 

to wliom honor is due — Mr. Jeiferson was the author 
and uniform supporter — each slave on attaining the 
proper age — males (say) twenty-one — would have be- 
come a free man on the spot, where his hired labor 
would have been needed. Thus he would remain with 
the younger members of his family till their liberation 
in turn, or have engaged himself to work on the next 
plantation. In this way each freedman would have 
had, to some extent, the choice of employers, and each 
employer, to a like extent, the choice of laborers — each 
with a strong motive to respect the interests and feel- 
ings of the other. Thus, moreover, the labor of the 
country would not have been diminished, nor its jpro- 
ductions. 

The wise Oxenstiern said to his son: JVescis mi 
fili quantuld scientid gubernatur mundus. And the 
good old Gloster, blind, says, in King Lear : 

" 'Tis the times' plague when madmen lead the blind." 

In virtue, wisdom, talent, one of the most eminent 
men of his times — Rufus King — already prominent at 
the end of the Revolution, when quite young — twice 
our Minister Extraordinary to London, and twenty-odd 
years a leader in the Senate of the United States — this 



188 Mr. Kirufs Wise Proj)Osition. 

American Oxenstiern, always opposed to the principle 
of slavery, and to its extension into new States and 
Territories — had in him nothing of the madness of 
political abolitionism. Honored by his kind attentions 
from early in the war of 1812-'15, to the end of his 
career, I, tlie autobiographer, am happy to cite his sen- 
timents on the great subject under consideration, to 
which- my own closely approximated. 

Mr. King, feeling a modest assurance that his name, 
position, and services could not fail to carry with them 
due weight, with Congress, at some future day, laid 
upon the table of the Senate, February 16, 1825 — 
fifteen days before he finally left that body — a benign 
resolution to the effect that as soon as the remnant of 
the national debt should be discharged, the net proceeds 
of the wliole of the public lands, "then and thence- 
forth, shall constitute and form a fund which is hereby 
appropriated, and the faith of the United States is 
pledged that the said fund shall be inviolably applied 
to aid the emancipation of such slaves, within any of 
the United States, and to aid the removal of sucli 
slaves, and the removal of such free persons of color 
in any of tlie said States as by the laws of the States 
respectively, may be allowed to be emancipated or re- 



His Mafjnanimity — A Kindred Act. 189 

moved to any Territory or country without the limits 
of the United States of America." The resolution 
stands a national record. 

Here is statesmanship — fai'-sightedness, seeking to 
disarm the muttering clouds which threatened to burst 
upon and overwhelm the land. Here is magnanimity, 
considering the hostility of the South on account of 
Mr. King's powerful resistance to the admission of 
Missouri into the Union with slavery. Here is a 
Christian's revenge — returning good for evil ! All 
honor to a great deed and a great name ! 

Hearing of the noble act, I, a Southern man, wait- 
ed upon Mr. King the same evening to retm-n him my 
hearty thanks, and added that the time could not fail 
to come when the whole South would be equally grate- 
ful. The rebellion ended, the first tranquil moment 
will be that time. 

I place in juxtaposition with the foregoing, a kin- 
dred sentiment that gleamed in the same body on a 
more recent occasion. 

It had been proposed, without due reflection, by one 
of our gallant commanders engaged in the suppression 
of the existing rebellion, to place, on the banners of 
his victorious troops, the names of their battles. The 



190 Mr. Sumner's Noble Proposition. 

proposition was relmked by the subjoined resolution, 
submitted by the Hon. Mr. Sumner to the Senate, May 
8, 1862 : 

" Resolved^ That, in the efforts now making for the 
restoration of the Union, and the establishment of 
peace throughout the country, it is inexpedient that 
the names of the victories obtained over our own fellow 
citizens should be placed on the regimental colors of 
the United States." 

This was noble and from the right quarter. 



CHAPTEE XYl. 

MARRIAGE — RECEPTION OF SWORDS AND MEDAL. 

Soon after his return from Europe, the autobiogra- 
pher married Miss Maria Mayo, the daughter of an emi- 
nent citizen, John Mayo, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia — 
a young lady more admired in her circle than her soldier 
husband, who, liowever, was highly feasted and honored 
everywhere — in Richmond by the whole State — that is, 
by the governor, legislators, judges, and many other 
of her first citizens united. She died, June 10, 1862. 
Of this marriage three daughters remain, of seven chil- 
dren — two sons and two daughters having died quite 
young. 

The medal voted by Congress was presented in a 



192 Presentation and Reply. 

handsome address, by President Monroe, a few days 
l)efore Lis descent from power. The following short 
extracts from the recipient's reply may show his man- 
ner of feeling and expressing himself at that period : 

" With a deep sense of the additional obligation now 
contracted, I accept, at the hands of the venerable chief 
magistrate of the Union, this classic token of the high 
est reward that a freeman can receive — the kecoeded 

APPROBATION OF HIS COUNTRY. 

" And you, sir, whom I have the honor officially to 
address for the last time ; you who bled in the first, and 
powerfully contributed to the second War of Indepen- 
dence ; you who have toiled fifty years to rear and to 
establish the liberties of this great republic — permit an 
bumble actor in a much sliorter period of its liistory, to 
mingle his prayers with those of millions, for the happy 
but distant termination of a life, of whicli, as yet, others 
have enjoyed the distinguished benefits, whilst the cares 
have been all your own." 

This medal chanced to be temporarily in the City 
Bank of New York, for safe-keeping, when two thieves, 
in a night's work, took from that institution $200,000. 
The medal was lying in a trunk of gold. All the coin 
was stolen, but the medal, though taken out of its case 



5 



Resjpect of TJd&ves for a Veteran. 193 

(marked with the owner's name) to gratify curiosity, 
was left.* A few years later, when the robbers had 
served out their sentences in the State prison, or been 
pardoned by the Executive, Scott was, in a steamer, 
on the Hudson, robbed of his purse by pickpockets who 
did not know him. The principal of the bank robbery 
hearing of the loss ($140) bestirred himself among the 
fraternity ; threatened to cause the whole body to be 
sent to the State prison if the money was not returned, 
and added, " When in the City Bank I saw the medal, 
but was not such a villain as to rob a gallant soldier." 
In a day or two the money was returned by Hays, the 
high constable, with that report, received from a third 
party. To show that he did not himself pocket the 
money, Hays was required to produce Scott's written 
receipt for its return — which was given. 
5, — A handsome sword was, about the same time, 
though voted years before, presented to Scott in a 
complimentary address by the Governor (Pleasants, 
bred a Quaker) of Virginia. 

A part of the reply, to illustrate the character of 
the autobiographer, is here inserted : 

" The law which gave my name to a county ; the 
thanks voted by the General Assembly ; and this sword 
9 



194 Virginia and New York — Swords of Honor. 

which I now have the honor to receive at your hands, 
in the presence of tlie executive council, are the precious 
evidences of that partiality. Sir — they are appreciated 
by me in the spirit in which they are bestowed, as in- 
culcating the first lesson of a citizen-soldier, that, as 
liberty is the greatest of blessings, so should he ever 
hold himself armed in her defence, and ready to sacri- 
fice his life in her cause ! " 

A similar presentation was earlier made to Scott 
by the amiable and devoted patriot, Tompkins, Gover- 
nor of New York. His address, very partially quoted 
above, written con amore^ is too splendid as a compo- 
sition, to say nothing of its flattery, to be much abridged 
in these memoirs : 

" In adverting, sir, to your claims to distinction, it 
would be sufficient to say, that on all occasions you 
have displayed the highest military accomplishments, 
the most ardent attachment to the rights and honor of 
your country, and the most intrepid exertions in their 
support. A rapid and unprecedented succession of 
promotions at an early age, has been the well-earned 
fruit of your talents. The distinguished notice by your 
Government is the best encomium on your character, 



Splendid Address of Governor Tompkins. 105 

and tlie highest reward to which the virtuous and the 

great aspire. 

"But, sir, your military career is replete with 
splendid events. Without descending into too much 
minuteness, I may briefly refer to your exploits in the 
most interesting portion of the American continent. 
The shores of Niagara, from Erie to Ontario, are in- 
scribed with your name, and with the names of your 
brave companions. The defeat of the enemy at Fort 
George will not be forgotten. The memorable confliiit 
on the plains of Chippewa, and the appalling night- 
battle on the Heights of Niagara, are events which 
have added new celebrity to the spots where they hap- 
pened, heightening the majesty of the stupendous cata- 
ract, by combining with its natural, all the force of the 
moral sublime. The admirers of the great in nature, 
from all quarters of the globe, will forever visit the 
theatre of your achievements. They will bear to their 
distant homes the idea of this mighty display of nature, 
and will associate with it the deeds of you and your 
brothers in arms. And so long as the beautiful and 
sublime shall be objects of admiration among men ; 
so long as the whelming waters of Erie shall be tum- 
bled into the awfiil depths of Niagara, so long shall 



19<> Jarkson\s Violence Aroused. 

the splendid actions in which you have had so con 
spicuous a share, endure in the memory of man." 

This paragraph closed the reply of Scott to the 
Governor of New Tork : 

" On an occasion like this, declarations would hut 
feehly express the volume of obligation contracted. 
Permit me to assure your Excellency, and through 
you, the Legislature and people of the proud State of 
New York, that I am sensibly alive to the duties of a 
republican soldier, armed by the hands of his country- 
men to support and defend their national honor and 
independence; and if my personal services had been 
more worthy of the distinction bestowed, I should have 
no wish left me, at this moment, but that the glory 
and liberties of the republic might be eternal." v^ 

In 181T quite an angry correspondence took place 
between Major-General Jackson and Scott, then entire 
strangers to each other. In Parton's life of the former, 
and Mansfield's of the latter — two works of consider- 
able ability — the particulars of this quarrel are given. 
A passing notice of it in this compressed autobiography 
must suffice. 

The Secretary of War, acting in the name or by the 
authority of the President, had sent an order, direct. 



History of the Case. 19"? 

to a topographical officer, in the Southern division 
(half of the United States) nnder the command of 
Jackson, teUing him to go on some duty elsewhere. 
' This slight irregularity was caused by the wish to save 
time, for the officer's post office was at a considerable 
distance from Jackson's headquarters. If notice (al- 
ways proper in such cases) had been given of the order 
in question, to Jackson, the irregularity would have 
been cured ; but this was not done by the acting secre- 
tary, Mr. Graham. The want of courtesy, on the part 
of the Executive, was met by a grave offence— a severe 
rebuke of the Executive, in an order addressed to his 
division by the hero of New Orleans, in which all his 
officers were peremptorily instructed not to obey any 
mandate whatsoever, from whomsoever, that did not 
pass through his (Jackson's) hands. This was, no 
doubt, the production of one of his numerous young 
staff officers — madcaps — to whom was usually aban- 
doned, as was well known to the whole service, all 
labors of the pen. The penman, no doubt, proud of 
his commission, very dogmatically, laid down on the 
subject a code of military doctrines, most of them 
juvenile crudities, but well suited to the violence of 
the chief. The order was ostentatiously thrown into 



1^ TRstm^y Continued. 

many newspapers at once, soon to be taken up by all, 
and become a subject of universal conversation. Just 
then, June, 1817, Scott chanced to meet Governor 
Clinton, present two or three other gentlemen. Being 
interrogated, professionally, by his Excellency, on w^iat 
he termed the " extraordinary order," the soldier en- 
tered fully and methodically into the subject, and neces- 
sarily pointed out several grave blunders, with many 
regrets, and added the hope and belief that, in consid- 
eration of great services, an admonition — and not Avliat 
the governor thought — a court ^ would terminate the 
matter. That high functionary, had about him, neces- 
sarily, many politicians of inferior grades — one of them, 
a sort of familiar^ the editor of a paper devoted to his 
Excellency as a candidate (a second time) for the presi- 
dency. To this editor Scott's comments on the order 
were casually mentioned, and this was repeated, by the 
latter, in the same way, to a scribbler in the same 
paper — a former aide-de-camp to a rival general. This 
ingenious miscreant, from vicarious hostility, a love of 
mischief, or some hope of personal benefit, addressed 
General Jackson, anonymously, giving Scott's com- 
ments, but suppressing the praises of Jackson, and 
enclosing a newspaper slip, of his own writing (which 



Bad Temjpcr— Bullying, 199 

he attributed to Scott), attacking Jackson ! The en- 
tanglement thus produced was slowly unravelled in 
the next ten or twelve years. Jackson enclosed to 
Scott a copy of the anonymous letter (refusing the 
original) and the contemptible printed article, demand- 
ing, etc. In reply, Scott (also suppressing his praises) 
acknowledged and repeated his comments on the order, 
but spurned the printed squib. Then came the rejoin- 
der full of bad temper, bad writing, and bad logic, but 
containing no challenge — only intimating that Scott 
might, if he pleased, call him to the field ! Now this 
was as arrogant as absurd ; for the law of the duello 
requires that the party, first conceiving himself to be 
insulted, should make such call— otherwise there would 
be a mere competition in vulgar abuse, as in the quar- 
rels of fishwomen. Scott, however, for the sake of a 
conceit that forced itself upon him, chose for the mo- 
ment to consider the rejoinder as a challenge, in order 
to add that he declined the combat as his " ambition 
was not that of Erostratus "—intimating that being 
without distinction, he waived his only chance of 
acquiring any by killing a defender of his country. 
Jackson, probably, not understanding the compliment, 
hugged the pleasanter conceit to his bosom, that he 



200 Fancied Triumph. 

had won anotlier personal victory by bullying! It 
seemed cruel to disturb so much happiness, and Scott 
left his enemy in all his glory. 

In the next six years the report often reached Scott 
and down to a late day, that Jackson had declared he 
would cut off Scott's ears (his usual threat against 
offenders) the first time they should chance to meet, 
Tliey first saw each other in Washington, December, 
1823. Jackson had just taken his seat in the Senate, 
and Scott was en route for the Western Department, 
headquarters, Louisville, Kentucky, and thence to the 
Gulf of Mexico, etc., etc. During his short stay in 
Washington, Scott — having the privilege of the floor — 
was every day in the Senate chamber (when open) — un- 
armed ; — for he never has worn a concealed weapon — 
always declaring it would be the smaller evil that he, 
or any other person should be slain, than to set so bad 
an example. He frequented the Senate not to attack, 
or to insult, but simply to put himself under the eye 
of Jackson — contriving to pass out the chamber, on 
adjournment, just ahead of him. 

Wearied with this state of things, and impatient to 
proceed to his duties in the Southwest, this letter was 
written : 



Corresj^ondence Reojpened. 201 

General Scott to General Jackson. 

Washington, D. C, December 11, 1823. 

Sm: 

One portion of the American community has long 
attributed to you the most distinguished magnanimity, 
and the other portion the greatest desperation, in your 
resentments. Am I to conclude that both are in error ? 
I allude to circumstances which have transpired be- 
tween us, and which need not here be recapitulated, 
and to the fact that I have now been six days in your 
immediate vicinity without having attracted your no- 
tice. As this is the first time in my life that I have 
been within a hundred miles of you, and as it is barely 
possible that you may be ignorant of my presence, I 
beo- leave to state that I shall not leave the District 
before the morning of the 14th inst. 

I have the honor to be, sir. 

Tour most obedient servant, 

WINFIELD SCOTT 
The Hon. General A. Jackson, Senator, etc. 

The following answer was promptly returned : 
9* 



202 Adjustment. 

General Jackson to General Scott. 

Mr, O'Neil's, December 11, 1823. 

Sir: 

Your letter of to-day has been received. Whether 
the world are correct or in error, as regards mj " mag- 
nanimity," is for the world to decide. I am satisfied 
of one fact, that when you shall know me better, you 
will not be disposed to harbor the opinion, that any 
thing like " desperation in resentment " attaches to me. 

Your letter is ambiguous ; but, concluding from 
occurrences heretofore, that it was Amtten with friend- 
ly views, I take the liberty of saying to you, that when- 
ever you shall feel disposed to meet me on friendly 
terms, that disposition will not be met by any other 
than a correspondent feeling on my part. 

have the lionor to be, sir, 
Your most obedient servant, 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

General W. Scott. 

Scott, though prepared for the worst, was pleased 
with Jackson's reply, and, as the younger man, lost no 
time in waiting upon the honorable Senator. He was 



Malice in Petto. 203 

graciously received, and tlie next day took the road to 
the West. It is painful to reflect tliat so amicable a 
settlement only meant, with one of the parties, a post- 
ponement of revenge to a more " convenient season." 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT ^HLITARY INSTITUTES — TACTICS 

DEATH OF GENERAL BROWN MACOMB PROMOTED 

ANIMATED CORRESPONDENCE. 

In the National Gazette of Philadelpliia (Septem- 
ber 22, 1821), I published a Scheme fw Restricting the 
Use of Ardent Spirits in the United States^ in which I 
gave a glance at the history of intemperance from tlie 
earliest times, and its frightful statistics among our- 
selves. Mr. Walsh, the able and accomplished editor, 
published the essay in a supplement of thirteen col- 
umns, and heralded it with high praises in the Gazette 
itself. The following is the opening paragraph giving 
the origin of the essay : 



Ternjperance Movement. 205 

" It is now many years since the writer of this 
essay was first made to reflect, with some intensity, on 
the vice of drunkenness, whilst endeavoring to apply a 
remedy, in a small corps, to that greatest source of 
disease and insubordination in the rank and file of an 
army. Having the attention so awakened, and subse- 
quently being nmcli accustomed to change of place 
from one extreme of the Union to another, he has l)een 
led to observe, with a more than usual keenness, the 
ravages of the same habit among the more numerous 
classes of the community. The conviction has thus 
been forced upon him that, of all accidental evils, ihu 
is the most disastrous to our general population." 

The principal merit of the essay is that it led to 
the formation of temperance societies, since so general, 
throughout the United States. 

A little before that time, I had become a member 
of societies for the prevention of jtauperism^ and the 
suj^presslon of vice and immorality, to which the essay 
was a contribution. 

True to my motto — when solitary, he not idle j and 
to the maxim, in peace, prepare for war / I conceived 
the idea, in 1818, of preparing a system of General 
Regulations or Military Institutes for the army. After 



206 Military Institutes. 

!i wide study, begun long before, I made a rigorous 
analysis of the whole subject, and submitted it to the 
War Department, which being approved, and provided 
for by Congress, I duly executed. 

This was the first time that the subjects, embraced, 
were ever reduced, in any army, to a regular analysis, 
and systematized into institutes. The Legislation Jlili- 
taire of France, was indeed, most copious, containing 
all that can be desired for an army, in the field — ex- 
cepting tactics, strategy, and engineering — each of 
which and some other branches of war, properly re- 
»|uiring separate treatises. And the English book of 
General Regulations^ was also composed of indepen- 
dent articles, without connection or system. But in 
the Institutes, besides definitions of administration, in- 
struction, service, police, subjects treated of — there is a 
due logical connection and dependence between tlie 
parts, not found in the other books mentioned. 

How the author's great labors on this and his tac- 
tical works have been obscured, mutilated, and pirated, 
by permission of superior authority, from 1836, down 
to 1861 inclusive, to the injury of the service, through, 
I must confess, my neglect of my own interests, may 
be touched upon in the sequel of this narrative. 



Tactics for the Militia. 207 

It lias been seen that I was president of a board of 
infantry tactics when the treaty of peace with Great 
Britain arrived in February, 1815. Their labors were 
hastily and imperfectly concluded by that great event. 
Another board, on the same subject, of which I was 
again president, met at West Point in 1824. Each of 
these boards took, as its basis, the French tactics— the 
same that I had orally and practically taught in the 
camp of instruction at Buffalo, beginning in March, 

1814. 

Besides the Board of Tactics for the army, in 1824, 
I was president of another, in 1826, at Washington, 
consisting of two general officers of the militia — Major- 
General T. Cadwallader, of Philadelphia, a very well 
read soldier, and who, in the war of 1812-'15, for 
some time, was commander-in-chief of that department 

a citizen of the greatest moral weight of character 

—and Brigadier-General Sumner, long the intelligent 
adjutant-general of Massachusetts— together with five 
army officers. This board was instructed to report: 
1. A plan for the organization and instruction of the 
whole body of the militia of the United States ; 2. A 
system of artillery tactics ; 3. A system of cavalry tac 
tics ; and 4. A system of infantry and rifle tactics— all 



2U.S Death of Major- General Brown. 

four for the benelit of the militia of the Union. The 
first and fourth of those reports were from Scott's pen, 
and of the fourth, sixty thousand copies were printed 
In- order of Congress at once, for general distribution. 

In the tliird year (February, 1828) of the second 
Adams's Administration — a statesman of great learning 
and abilities ; of high patriotism and conscientiousness 
— an unostentatious Christian — honest, and as obsti- 
nately brave as any Puritan in Cromwell's time — 
Major-General Brown, general-in-chief of the army, 
died, and Jackson had resigned to be Governor of 
Florida — which left me senior as brevet-major-general, 
from July 25th, whereas Gaines' brevet of major-gen- 
eral only gave rank from August 15th, and Macomb's 
only fi'om September 11th— all in 181-1. But Macomb's 
ardinar'y commission was only that of colonel of engi- 
neers, to which he had been cut down at the last re- 
duction of the army in 1821. Both Scott and Gaines, 
therefore, were not only Macomb's seniors, by brevet, 
but also as brigadiers by ordinary commission over his 
ordinary commission as colonel. It is true, however, 
that the President has never been legally bound in 
making promotions, beyond the rank of colonel, to 
restrict himself, absolutely, to seniority. Hence the 



Cabinet Decide to Promote Scott. 209 

question — "Who shall be selected to fill Brown's vacan- 
cy ? became quite general. 

An incident now occurred which, among prudes, 
and men like prudes, may be considered beneath the 
dignity of history, or memoirs, to record. 

Two ladies, sisters, of great excellence — Mrs. Mason, 
of Anacosta Island, Georgetown, and Mrs. Rush, wife 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, waited upon the wife 
of the President to solicit the appointment for Macomb, 
who, if promoted, as they said, had promised to make 
the son-in-law of Mrs. Mason (Lieutenant Cooper, then 
at Fortress Monroe, now adjutant-general of the Con- 
federate army) an aide-de-camp. Mrs. Adams, mistress 
of all the proprieties of the sex, and her "pride of 
place," archly replied: "Truly ladies, though Mes- 
dames Maintenon and Pompadour are said to have 
appointed all the generalissimos of their times, I do 
not think that such matters appertain to women ; but 
if they did, and I had any influence, it sliould be given 
to Mrs. General Scott, with whom I accidentally, in 
travelling, last summer, became acquainted." (The 
authority for this statement is the late Dr. Hunt, who, 
as family physician, happened to be present, and who 
often repeated it to many persons, several of whom are 



210 A Secret Fetch — Appointment of Ifacomh. 

still living-.) All this time I happened to be inspecting 
the Indian frontiers of Louisiana and Arkansas. The 
ladies, though defeated in their first effort, did not stop 
there. At their instance, a master now took the mat- 
ter in hand ; for Mr. Secretary Hush, a most amiable 
and persuasive gentleman, had not resided at a Euro- 
pean court (London) without improvement in the arts 
of insinuation. The President held an evening consul- 
tation with many of his cabinet on the question — Who 
shall be the new general-in-chief ? present, Mr. Clay, 
Mr, Southard, Mr. Wirt, and Mr. Rush. I was named 
and approved without discussion or dissent. The four 
members of the cabinet happened to be severally en- 
gaged for the evening to the distinguished wife of a 
distinguished Senator (Johnston) of Louisiana. All 
took leave of the President together ; but Mr. Rush 
soon turned back as if he missed his gloves or hand- 
kerchief. The game was now readily won ; for know- 
ing Mr. Adams's horror of ])loodshed in private com- 
bat, he pressed the strong probability, according to 
him, of a deadly affair ol pistols between Scott and 
Gaines (of which there was not the slightest danger) 
if either of them should be appointed to the vacancy ; 
whereas, as he argued, with Macomb at the head of the 



Influence of Woman. 211 

army, all would be acquiescent and harmonious! It 
only remains to be added, that Mr. Adams confessed 
to Mr. Clay and other cabinet advisers, after the nomi- 
nation, that, to save bloodshed he had changed his 
mind;— that Cooper was in good faith appointed aide- 
de-camp, and that his most excellent wife (who has 
been kind to at least one Union prisoner at Eichmond) 
was brouo-ht up to Washington and to her affectionate 

\/ mother. 

How nugatory are human institutions ! The Salic 
law may be established in monarchies, and women ex- 
cluded from the polls, as weU as from office, in repub- 
lics. It is all in vain ; for there is " a higher law," 
" which altereth not "—the result of civilization— that 
bends imperial man to the stronger will of the weaker 

vessel ! 

A long and very animated correspondence ensued 
between the War Department and myself consequent 
on its order placing me under the command of Macomb, 
a junior major-general- that is, a superior under an in- 
ferior officer. As all the letters are in print they need 
not be reproduced in this narrative. The heads of my 
argument against the anomaly, may, however, be suc- 
cinctly stated thus : That Macomb, though a major- 



212 Value of Brevet Rank, etc. 

general, was not the major-general of the whole army 
— there being several others of the same grade (by 
brevet) and no such grade, in law, as the major-general 
or general-in-chief — the latter being a designation of 
convenience only, and meaning, simply, the senior of 
several others of the same grade, like commodore, at 
that day, meaning the senior commander of several 
vessels besides his own, whether commanded by mid- 
shipmen or post captains. 2. That rank is rank, 
whether the same be conferred by ordinary or brevet 
commission — both being equally the creatures of the 
law — unless the law has made a diiFerence to the preju- 
dice of one or the other rank, as in the 61st article of 
^var, winch is against brevet rank — only within regi- 
ments or some other similar corps, as the corps of engi- 
neers. I did not claim the right to command Macomb, 
nnless, coming together on common duty, when one 
would be obliged to command the other, which it was 
always competent for the Executive, by arrangement, 
to avoid, as I might be rightly assigned to some sep- 
arate command or duty, in direct correspondence with 
the Executive, or laid, by the latter on the shelf, as has 
becorhe so common recently. I simply contended that 
no senior, in rank, of the same grade, whether by brevet 



Mr. Adams in Controversy. 213 

or otherwise, had ever been, or could be, legally 
placed under a junior in the British or American 
army, except by the consent of the senior, and, that, 
the rules and articles of war were the same in the two 

armies. 

Mr. Adams, as was well known, read, during his 
^eSdency, with conscientiousness, every paper, con- 
nected with every important subject, that required 
Executive decision, and, in this controversy, in which, 
by inveiglement, he had become, virtually, a principal 
-he did more, he wrote, himself, most of the replies 
to my formidable appeals and demonstrations. With 
the obstinacy of a Soundhead, equal to his invincible 
honesty, he brought to bear against me all the great 
resources of his rhetoric and ratiocination; and, per- 
haps, it may even be added-some of the tricks of the 
schoolmen-being hard pressed and animated to for- 
getfulness. One of his clever fetches overwhelmed me 
for a moment. Tip to April, 1818, all brevets in the 
army, including mine, had been conferred by the Presi- 
dent, without the concurrence of the Senate. Ergo, 
they'had been unconstitutionally given, or were of ht- 
tle or no worth; for the supreme law had declared- 
that " Congress may, by law, vest the appointment ol 



214 Scott in Reply. 

such inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- 
dent alone." * Kecovering from the blow, I recollected 
that, in all tariffs for the exchange of prisoners of war, 
agreed upon by belligerents, the value of every grade 
of rank is estimated in privates. Thus in the cartel 
between the United States and Great Britain in tlie 
war of 1812-'15, a Yirigadier-general is put down as 
worth thirty i)rivates, and a major-general at only ten 
more. Consequently, President Madison in making 
me a major-general, by brevet, had not made a major- 
general out and out (under the act of Congress), but 
only added the fractional value of ten privates to the 
grade of brigadier-general before (in my case), solemn- 
ly approved by the Senate ; that is, but a fourth of the 
full value of a major-general. To this reply, over- 
whelming in its turn, I added the resolution of Con- 
gress giving me a gold medal, and two other acts, all 
recognizing, by express citation, my higher rank. I 
then turned upon my great adversary in the contro- 
versy, and triumphantly summed up by saying — if 
that presentation of my case amounted to nothing, 

* This case shows that it is as dangerous to possess certain arts of 
rhetoric as to wear concealed weapons, as even good men are liable, un- 
der excitement, to use them improperly. 



Singular Coincidence. 



215 



"why tlien, the world and all that's in it, is noth- 
ing; the covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing 
[etc.], for nothing, have these nothings, if this be 

nothing ! " 

Mr. Adams confessed himself pleased with the earn- 
estness of this rejoinder ; but k seems to belong to the 
creed of Koundheads, notwithstancling their great char- 
acteristics for good, in the past, and for the future, 
never to acknowledge error. 

An incident occurred in this controversy, so curi- 
ous, that it seems to be entitled to a record in this 
place. The late adjutant-general (Jones), a good sol- 
dier and a better man, calling on business one morn- 
ing, foiind the President reading one of my letters then 
just received, and laughing heartily. "Here," said 
Mr. Adams, giving an abstract of the letter in his 
hand— "the general is commenting on the 61st, and 
62d articles " of war— relative to rank and command, 
which, like the whole series, had come down from 
September, 1Y76, as borrowed by Congress from Eng- 
land, without change, till 1806 — and charges that 
" some bungler, no doubt a clerk in the War Depart- 
ment, had ignorantly made the revision." Kenewing 
his laughter, Mr. Adams added : " I am that bung- 



210 Power and Obstinacy Succeed. 

ling clerk, for being u member of the Senate's com- 
mittee, to which the subject was referred, in 1806, the 
labor of the revision fell to me ! " 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

BLACK HAWK WAK — CHOLEKA IN THE AEMY — IKDIAlv 
TREATIES BOMAJJilTIC TALE. 

In 1832, Indian hostilities of some magnitude broke 
out against the tben frontier settlements of the Upper 
Mississippi. Brigadier-General Atkinson, a dear friend 
of the autobiographer, an excellent man and fine sol- 
dier, collected such forces as were at hand— regulars, 
under Colonel (afterwards President) Taylor, with a 
much greater number of Illinois volunteers — and 
marched against Black Hawk and his volunteer band 
of confederate Sacs and Foxes, who were supported, 
not only by the sympathies, but material, secret aid, of 
their neighbors, the Winnebago tribe. As the exam- 
10 



218 Asiatic Cholera — Scott the Do'tor. 

pie of Black Hawk was likel}' to become iufcctious 
among many other Indians in that quarter — Sioux, etc, 
etc., Scott, who corainanded at the time in the Eastern 
half of the United States, was, to meet contingencies, 
ordered to the Northwest, with a respectable number 
of regulars taken from the seaboard defences. Ascend- 
ing Lake Huron, the Asiatic cholera, the new scourge 
of mankind which had just before been brought to 
Quebec, found its way up the chain of waters, in time 
to infect the troops of Scott's expedition at different 
points on the lakes. In his particular steamer, the dis- 
ease broke out suddenly, and with fatal violence. The 
only surgeon on board, in a panic, gulped down half a 
bottle of wine ; went to bed, sick, and ought to have 
died. There was nobody left tliat knew anything of 
the healing art, or of the frightful distemper — only 
Scott, who, anticipating its overtaking him in the 
Northwest, had taken lessons from Surgeon Mower, 
stationed in New York — eminent in his profession, 
and of a highly inquiring, philosophic mind — in respect 
to the character, and mode of treating the disease. 
Thus he became the doctor on the afflicting occasion — 
no doubt a ver}' indifferent one, except in labor and 
intrepidity. He hiid provided the whole expedition 



Chicogo— Atkinson Tr'mmjphs. 219 

with tlie remedies suggested by Doctor Mower, wliicli, 
on board Ms steamer, he applied, in great part, with 
his own hand to the sick. His principal success was 
in preventing a general panic, and, mirabile dictu ! 
actually cured, in the incipient stage, by commcmd, 
several individuals of that fatal preparation for the 
reception of the malady. It continued several days 
after landing, in July, at Chicago— then but a hamlet. 
As soon as the troops liad become sufficiently convales- 
cent they w^ere marched thence across the wild prairies, 
inhabited by nomads of Potawatamies — Indians of 
doubtful neutrality. Scott preceded the detachments, 
and on arriving at Prairie du Chien, was glad to find 
that Atkinson, after a most fagging march of weeks 
and hundreds of miles, following the devious retreat of 
the Hawk, finally overtook him at the mouth of the 
Badaxe in the act of crossing the Mississippi, with his 
band, and in a gallant combat, killed many of his fol- 
lowers, made others prisoners, and dispersed the re- 
mainder. The principal chief and many hundreds of 
his people, men, women, and (children, escaped across 
the river: soon, however, to be brought in by the 
Sioux, who were intimidated by the knowledge that 
reenforcements were approaching from the East. All 



220 A Nolle Volunteer. 

the fugitives from the battle, on both sides of the 
Mississippi, were ultimately brought in. Inspecting 
the hospital at Fort Crawford', Prairie du Cliien (Tay- 
lor's post), Scott was struck with the remarkably fine 
head of a tall volunteer, lying on his side, and seeking 
relief in a book. To the question — " What have you 
there, my frie^id ? " the wounded man pointed to the 
title page of Young's Night Thoughts. Scott sat 
down on the edge of the bunk, already interested, and 
learned this story : 

The reader's l)rother, Mr. Paine, was Black Hawk's 
lirst victim. Not in a spirit of revenge, but to protect 
the surviving frontier settlers, the wounded man had 
become a volunteer. Riding into the battle of the Bad- 
axe, he passed an armed Indian boy, not more than in 
his fom'teenth year, whom he might easily have sabred, 
l)ut that he thought him a harmless child. The incip- 
ient warrior, however, fired, and lodged a ball against 
the spine of the noble volunteer, who, though still 
suffering greatly, declared that he preferred his con- 
dition to the remorse he should have felt if he hiid 
killed the boy belie\dng him to have been harmless. 
Scott soothed the Christian hero by giving him the 
story (told above) of the Robinson Crusoe Pain, of the 



Rock Island — Assemhlage of Indians. 221 

Isle of Cape Breton, and took leave with moistened 
eyes. 

Scott, with his principal forces, descended the Mis- 
sissippi to Rock Island, a little above the mouth of 
Rock River, which he had given to all the neighboring- 
Indians — friendly, neutral, or lately in arms — as the 
point of assemblage for the adjustment, by treaty, etc., 
of the rewards or punishments due to conduct in the 
recent troubles. There soon approached the confeder- 
ate Sacs and Foxes, noble tribes, who reminded one of 
Dryden's fine triplet : 

" Free as nature first made man, 

Ere the base laws of servitude began, 
When wild in woods the noble savage ran." 

The cunning Winnebagoes were also coming in, as 
well as the (for a time) doubtful bands of Sioux, and 
the not unfriendly Menominees. But just then the 
cholera broke out among the troops at the island, in 
all the violence of a first attack. On that account, 
Scott sent directions to all those Indians not to ap- 
pro .l1i him till a new summons. In the mean time 
an incident occurred, like several others of a later date, 
at the same place, to illustrate the manners — morals, 
mmurs — of our red men — not yet taught by his white 



222 Cliolero. Again — Indiqui Anecdote. 

brethren to lie, to cheat and steal, except to and from 
an enemy. 

There were found at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, 
the appointed scene of diplomacy, three civil prisoners. 
Sacs, confined by an Indian agent on the charge of 
murder — that is, surprising and killing a party of 
Menominees (old enemies), in exact retaliation, and 
according to Indian habits, of a like act on the part 
of the latter. 

In reference to the terrible cholera, Scott said to 
the prisoners : " If I permit you, as you desire, to seek 
safety in the prairies, and, if attacked with the disease, 
to cure yourselves, with your own unscientific reme- 
dies—will you, when the cholera shall have left the 
island, return here to be dealt with — probably hung — 
as a civil court may adjudge?" They gave the re- 
quired pledge. 

It was accordingly arranged, that on the exhibition 
of a certain signal, hung out from a dead tree, at an 
elevated point of the island, they would return. Load- 
ed with hard bread, and armed with guns, they were 
put ashore on the mainland. The cholera having 
passed away, the signal was given, when, in a day or 
two, the three niurderers presented themselves ! Scott 



Indians Becalled— Anecdote. 



923 



placed tliem again on parole, to await the answer to 
an appeal, in their behalf, he had already made to 
Washington. The answer finally came and was tavor- 

able. 

The new summons was now given to all the tribes 
before mentioned, and obeyed, when conferences and 
grand councils of war for the settlements, before 
alluded to, commenced. While these were pendmg, 
a demand came up, from a judge of Illinois, sixty miles 
below, for an Indian murderer, his name unknown, 
but who had been distinctly traced to the camp of the 
great body of Sacs and Foxes whom the chiefs had 
contrived to hold in neutrality during the recent hos- 
tilities-influenced mainly by Keokuk-not a hered- 
itary chief, and only a principal hrave or warrior, 
the sense bearer, orator, and treasurer of the confeder- 
acy. The demand was communicated to this remark- 
able man. After a little musing, the painful truth of 
the story seemed to flash upon him. With candor he 
stated the grounds of his fears. A young Irave of some 
twenty years of age, the son of a distinguished chiet, 
had long sought to marry a handsome young squaw, 
the daughter of another famous chief; but the maiden 
repulsed the lover, applying to him the most oppro- 



224 Romantic Ma/nnage. 

brioLis epithet — squaw — be never having taken a scalp, 
killed a grizzly bear, nor, by surprise, robbed an enemy 
of his arms, horse, or wife. Hence, she said her lover 
was not a hrave, but a woman. Her sympathies were, 
moreover, with IJlack Hawk — her only brother having 
run off with that reckless chief. All these particulars 
were not yet known to the wise treasurer ; for he 
had only been surprised at the change of conduct 
in the helle sauvage^ who had so suddenly married 
her lover. Keokuk, in good faith, said he would in- 
quire, for his great care had been to save his people 
from destructive war and entire spoliation, with which 
Black Hawk's conduct had caused them to be threat- 
ened. 

The next day he called at headquarters and whis- 
pered that his fears had proved prophetic ; that the 
happy bridegroom had, for the good of the confeder- 
acy, confessed himself to be the guilty party, and was 
at hand; but begged the general to repeat, in a full 
council, the demand, etc. This was accordingly done, 
and as soon as Scott's peroration — I demand the mur- 
derer ! was interpreted, the young Apollo stood up and 
said: I am the man ! Witli a violent stamj) and voice 
Scott called out — the guard! A sergeant with a dozen 



BrideyrooTTi's Terrible Trials. 225 

grenadiers rushed in, seized the offendei- and carried 
him oiF. 

Wlien the blacksmith began to place and rivet irons 
upon him he struggled furiously. It took several of 
the guard to hold him down. He said he did not come 
forward to be ironed ; he did not wish to be tried, that 
he preferred to be shot at once. He was sent down to 
the Illinois court, then in session ; j^ut on his trial, and 
notwithstanding the strong circumstantial evidence, 
and that it was proven he had acknowledged the kill- 
ing in a hand-to-hand fight — a tricky lawyer, well j)i'o- 
vided with the means of bribing, no doubt, by the 
chiefs of the confederacy, obtained from the jury a 
verdict of not guilty. 

The acquitted had yet to pass another ordeal — one 
of fire and water. A swift horse, halfway between the 
court and the Mississippi (a few hundred yards ofi^) had 
been provided for the occasion ; but frontier men al- 
ways have their rifles in hand, and their horses ready. 
The lawyer hastened his client out of court, and gained 
for him a good start. " Fly, young man, or your dear- 
bought Helen will soon be a widow ! " In a minute, 
followed by some whizzing shots, he was in the saddle. 
In another, " horse and rider " were plunged into " the 
10* 



22u Escape — Conferences — Councils. 

great father of waters," swimming side by side. Now 
came up furiously a dozen mounted riflemen, who 
threw away their lead at the too distant game. The 
last news of the romantic Sac represented, him as the 
happy father of a tliriving family of "young barba- 
rians," by more than a " Daeian mother," — all far l)e- 
yond the Mississippi. 

Conferences were held with the Menominees and 
Sioux, and treaties signed with — first the Winnebagoes, 
and next with the confederate Sacs and Foxes, in sep- 
arate general councils. There was a second commis- 
sioner, united with Scott, in these negotiations — Gov- 
ernor Reynolds. But the wearer of the sword, before 
Indians, is the effective orator. 

The spirit of forbearance and liberality, on the part 
of the United States, were the prominent features in 
those settlements. Scott opened each council with 
stern reproach — reminding the confederate tribes that, 
by their failure to restrain one of their chiefs, Black 
Hawk, from making an unjust war upon the unoffend- 
ing white settlers, near them, tlie whole confederacy 
had forfeited as much of their territory as the conquer- 
ors might choose to cdaim as an indemnity ; and the 
Winnebagoes were informed, that their secret en- 



Peace Dictated^ Indians Grateful. 227 

couragement and preparations to join in liiglily crim- 
inal hostilities, made them liable to like punishment. 

These emphatic denunciations being made perfectly 
clear, through excellent interpreters, and their justice 
shown to be indisputable, Scott, on each occasion, pro- 
ceeded: " Such is justice, between nation and nation, 
against which none can rightfully complain; but as 
God in his dealings with human creatures tempers 
justice with mercy-or else the whole race of man 
would soon have perished-so shall we, commissioners, 
iu humble imitation of divine example, now treat you, 
mv red brethren! who have offended both against God 
and yom- great human father, at Washington." He 
then, in each case, demanded a portion of tlieir super- 
fluous territory-from the confederates, that noxt to the 
Mississippi, now the best part of Iowa; and from the 
Winnebagoes the northern part of Illinois-paying 
liberally for the cessions, and stipulating for the sup- 
port at the cost of the United States, of schools and 
workshops, to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
the more necessary mechanical arts. 

Grateful replies were returned in each council. 
That of Keokuk, on the part of the Sacs and Foxes, 
was full of sound sentiment, power, and pathos. 



228 JBall — Pantomime — Illumination. 

Tlie eveninji; after signing the last treaty, tlie gen- 
eral gave a grand dinner to the principal chiefs, and 
had later, a brilliant display of pyrotechnics — that is, 
the throwing of fire balls from mortars, and firing of 
single and batteries of rockets, which caused much 
shouting of delight from the Indians encamped on the 
mainland — Rock Island being in the centre of an 
amphitheatre of high hills — notwithstanding their 
usual nil adm,irari^ or pldegm. 

The young officers of the army — all volunteers had 
been discharged by Scott, soon after the battle of the 
Badaxe — had a dance on the green turf at the same 
time — reels and quadrilles — with young hraves — the 
Indian moeurs, like those of the Turks, forbidding that 
the red women should mix themselves up, in public, 
with their male superiors — barbarians! Many of the 
softer sex, however, were allowed to look on the 
dancers, and showed by their giddy chatterings that 
they would have been happier if whirled about iil the 
dance by those charming young white hraves ! 

Ah ! how sad for man, and woman too, if not 
allowed, in youth and innocency, to converse, to talk, 
to play and laugh together. 

The male partners of our officers were quick in 



Winding Up — Contentment. 320 

step and imitation, as well as in loud laughter, at every 
turn. A band furnished the music and heightened the 
joy of all. 

Keokuk, too, contributed not a little to the enter- 
tainment by a pantomime, which needed no interpre- 
tation, of one of his *feuccessful expeditions against a 
hostile party. First the tedious march; streams to 
swim ; next the rapid run, and now the stealthy step — 
beckoning to his followers the discover}^ of the unsus- 
pecting enemy at camp fires with rifles laid aside, 
waiting a moment longer for the cooked venison they 
were destined never to eat ; — then the rush upon the 
unarmed, and the slaying. In a moment all was over, 
but the shouting. Bigotini was never happier in pan- 
tomime at the Paris Opera. 

A war dance was added by the same accomplished 
hero in peace as in war, whom Scott had solemnly in- 
vested with the rank and broad silver medal of a chief, 
with the consent of the tribe, and on an equal footing 
with the proudest who had inherited the title through 
long generations. 

The sequel of the late troubles were thus closed, 
when all, of both colors, dispersed, contented and 
cheerful. 



230 " Complimentary Notices. 

It was in allusion to the cholera and the foregoing 
settlements with the Indians, that General Cass, then 
Secretary of War, now one of the most venerable of 
American citizens, after a long life of nsefulness and 
distinction — without one error in morals, and but few 
in polities — addressed to Scott a letter containing this 
passage : 

" Allow me to congratulate you, sir, upon this for- 
tunate consummation of your arduous duties, and 
to express my entire approbation of the whole course 
of your proceedings, during a series of difficulties 
requiring higher moral courage than the opera- 
tions of an active campaign, under ordinary circum- 
stances."* 

A published letter from an intelligent officer of the 
army, still unknown, but supposed to have been the 
lamented Captain Richard Bache (a descendant of 
Dr. Franklin), deserves a place in this narrative. 
It is more in detail, and better motive than the Secre- 
tary's : 

He says tliat " the general's course of conduct on 
that occasion should establish for him a reputation not 
inferior to that which he has earned in the battle field ; 
and should exhibit him not onlv as a warrior, but as a 



Anonymovs A2:yj)IaMse. 231 

man-not only as the hero of battles, bnt as the hero 
of humanity. It is well known that the troops in that 
service suffered severely from the cholera, a disease 
frightful enough from its rapid and fatal effects, but 
which came among us the more so, from the known in- 
experience of our medical men, and from the general 
belief, at that time, in its contagiousness. Under such, 
circumstances it was clearly the general's duty to give 
the best general directions he could for proper attend- 
ance on the sick, and for preventing the spread of the 
disease. When he had done this, his duty was per- 
formed, and he might have left the rest to his medi- 
cal officers. But such was not his course. He thought 
he had other duties to perform, that his personal safe- 
ty must be disregarded to visit the sick, to cheer the 
well, to encourage the attendants, to set an example 
to all, and to prevent a panic-in' a word, to save 
the lives of others at the risk of his own. All this 
he did faithfully, and when he could have had no 
other motive than that of doing good. Here was no 
glory to be acquired; here was none of the excite- 
ments of the battle field; here was no shame to be 
avoided, or disgrace to be feared; because his gene- 
eral arrangements and directions to those whose part 



232 Continuation, etc. 

it was to battle with sickness, had satisfied duty. IJis 
conduct tlien exhibited a trait in liis character M'hich 
]iinde a strong impression on me, and which, in my 
opinion, justice requires should not be overlooked." 



1 



A 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

REJOINS HIS FAMILY-OKDEHED TO CHARLESTON-NULLI- 
FICATION— INCIDENTS— PEACE BESTOEED. 

ScoTT now hastened to join liis family, at West 
Point, in their retreat from the cholera in New York. 
He himself, always in its presence, experienced symp- 
toms of the infection; but without taking a remedy, 
he had, so far, escaped prostration. 

Passing through Cincinnati, he told the eminent 
Dr. Drake, judging by his usual feelings, tliat the evil 
was about to burst upon the inhabitants, which hap- 
pened the next day. Sleeping at Chambersburg, 
where he arrived late at night, he was much cramped, 
and learned, next morning, that a cholera patient was 
just dead on the same floor. At Philadelphia he told 



234 Rej)orts to the President at Washington. 

his friends, Professors Chapman and Gibson, that the 
disease was still lingering with them, and always well 
on the road, he might have said the same thing at ]^ew 
York. Here, eating a sumptuous dinner, for the first 
time in many months, with wine, at Delmonico's, he 
took the evening steamer for West Point, with stron- 
ger premonitions than ever before ; lay down to sleep, 
determined if, on waking up, the symptoms continued, 
to pass his family and die somewhere beyond them. 
Happily, getting into a healthy atmosphere, he, at the 
end of two hom's, found himself again well. 

It was now about the 4th of November. But little 
rest with his family was allowed. Having done much 
work, more was demanded. In a few days he received 
an order from the War Department, marked confiden- 
tial, to hasten to Washington. He passed, unknowing- 
ly, Mr. Secretary Cass on the road to the Xorth. 
Scott, arriving in the evening, had no one to report 
to, but President Jackson himself. Waiting upon him 
at once, he, after a gracious reception, adverted to the 
certainty that South Carolina would very soon be out 
of the Union — either by nullification or secession. On 
that probability, he condescendingly invited Scott's 
views as to the best measures of counteraction — he him- 



Scott's Suggestions Made Instnict'wns. 235 

self being patriotically resolved to stand liis ground— 
The Unio7i must and shall le ^preserved. Scott,, in 
reply, suggested strong garrisons for Fort Moultrie 
(Sumter was not quite above ground), Castle Pinckney, 
and the arsenal at Augusta, Georgia. Tlie latter was 
filled with the materiel of war— then easily seized and 
emptied by a sudden expedition across the bridge that 
made Hamburg, in South Carolina, a faubourg of Au- 
gusta—there being always, in both places, hundi*eds of 
cotton wagons harnessed up. He added, that besides 
troops, a sloop-of-war and some revenue cutters would 
be needed in Charleston to enforce the collec^tion of 
duties on foreign importations. " Proceed at once and 
execute those views. You have my carte Uanche, in 
respect to troops ; the vessels shall be there, and writ- 
ten instructions shall follow you," were the President's 
prompt orders, given orally. 

In the act of taking leave, Scott was invited to wait 
a moment for supper. He replied that as he should 
proceed South in the morning, he had only that hour 
for calling upon his friend, Ex-President Adams, a lit- 
tle distance oif. " That's right," said General Jackson, 
" never forget a friend." Mr. Adams astonished Scott 
not a little by two remarks : 1. " You are going South 



236 Interview with Mr. Adams. 

to M'atcli tlio inillifiers." (There was no intercourse 
between him and his successor wliatever.) 2. " ^Ir. 
Calhoun will he the first to j;'ive way. He will show 
the white feather ! " 

Scott reminded Mr. Adams that this was about his 
usual time for making his regular tour of inspection 
along the Southern seacoast. " Yes," he reiterated, 
" to watch the nullifiers." 

Scott reached Charleston a few days after the passage 
of the ordinance of nulliUcation. On the journey he 
had twisted a little an ankle. This was fortunate, and 
he made the most of the accident to cover delays at 
Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta ; for it was impor- 
tant to the interests of uninterrupted peace, that he 
sliould not, by open preparations for defence, precipi- 
tate hostilities, — the minds of nullifiers, about half of 
the population, being much inflamed, and on the qui 
vive. As biennial inspector, he contrived, by a little 
hobbling, to visit Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney ; 
gave confidential instructions to enlarge and strengthen 
the fort, etc. Orders were also sent for the handfuls 
of troops (single companies, from many points) neces- 
sary to complete garrisons. Thence he visited Augus- 
ta in tlie same way, and for a like purpose. That being 



Visits Charleston, Augusta, and Savanna /t. 237 

. accomplished, lie fell down to Savannah, wJiere he laid 
himself up rather more than the improved ankle re- 
quired, because an early return to Fort Moultrie would 
unquestionably have betrayed the special purpose of 
his presence ; have caused an immediate attempt to 
seize Fort Moultrie, and, probably, an intestine war, as 
bad as that which is now (February, 18G4), afflicting 
the good old Union. 

While lying at Savannah, awaiting a nearer ap- 
proach of the impending crisis in South Carolina, the 
reply, below, was written to the Honorable William C, 
Preston, afterwards of the Senate of the United States 
— then a leading member both of the legislature and 
convention of South Carolina. 

'No one intimately acquainted with this distin- 
guished man can speak of him without seeming, to a 
stranger, to run into extravagance. With the purest 
morals, and a wife worthy to glide " double, swan and 
shadow," down the stream of life with him — they were 
" lovely and pleasant in theii* lives, and in their death 
[not long] divided." 

He, so highly gifted in genius and fancy ; highly 
accomplished as a scholar, a gentleman, and a states- 
man ; with powers of oratory to enrapture the multi 



238 Sketch of a JS^oble C/iaraeter. 

tudo, and edifj the intelligent ; — with a soul so genial 
and voice so sweet, as to win all who approached him 
— young and old, men, women, and children — was, at 
this unhappy period, given up to nullification. His 
good genius, however, triumphed in the end ; for he 
lived long enough to make atonement to the Union, 
and to die (in 1860) faithful to the same allegiance 
that distinguished his grandfather, Cs,mpbell, of King's 
Mountain, and also his immediate parent, General 
Frank Preston, long a member of Congress from South- 
western Virginia. 

Letter from Major-Gene ral Scott to the IlonoraJ^le 
Lewis Cass, Secretary at War. 

[Extract.] 

" Headquarters, Eastern Department, ) 
Savannah, December 15, 1832. ) 

"Sm: 

" I liave had the honor to address you once from 
this place since my return from Augusta. The letter 
bore date the lOth or lltli instant. In it I stated tliat 
I had not the time to retain a copy. 

" I now take the liberty to enclose a co])y of a pri- 
vate letter which I addressed to William C. Preston, 



Hcial and Semi-Ojficial Corresj^ondence. 339 

Esq., a leading member of the South CaroL'na Legis- 
lature, and a nulliiier. I do this, because letters from 
me to individuals of that party should be seen by the 
Government, and because this letter contains the senti- 
ments and topics which I always urge in conversation 
with nullifiers. 

" It will be seen that I speak of the arrival of troops 
in the harbor of Charleston. I did this because I knew 
the movement of the troops was, or would be soon 
known, and because I wish to prevent the idea of 
offensive operations (invasion.) Such an idea miglit 
precipitate the State aiithorities into some act of open 
hostility, which would not fail to be followed by a 
civil war, at least among her own citizens." 

Savannah, December 14, 1832. 

My Dear Sir : 

You have an excellent memory to remind me, after 
so long an interval, of my promise to visit you when 
next on a tour to the South, and I owe you an apology 
for not earlier acknowledghig your kind letter. It was 
handed to me just as I was about to leave Charleston, 
and I have been since too constantly in motion (to Au- 
gusta, and back here) to allow me to write. 



240 Subject Continued. 

As to tlie " speculations " at Columbia relative to 
" tlie object of my visit to Charleston at this moment," 
I can only say, that I am on that very tour, and about 
the very time, mentioned by me when I last had the 
pleasure of seeing you. On what evils days we liave 
fallen, my good friend, when so commonplace an event 
gives rise to conjecture or speculation ! I can truly 
assure you, that no one has felt more wretched than 
your hum])le correspondent, since an unhappy contro- 
versy began to assume a serious aspect. I have always 
entertained a high admiration for the historv and char- 
acter of South Carolina, and accident or good fortune, 
has thrown me into intimacy, and even friendship, with 
almost every leader of the two parties which now divide 
and agitate the State. Would to God they were again 
united, as during the late war, when the federalists vied 
witli the republicans in the career of patriotism and 
glory, and when her legislature came powerfully to the 
aid of the Union. Well, the majority among you have 
taken a stand, and those days of general harmony may 
never return. What an awful position for South Caro- 
lina, as well as for the other States ! 

I cannot follow out the long, dark shades of the pic- 
ture that presents itself to my fears. I will ho^je, nev- 



Stibjeet Contimied. 241 

ertheless, for the best. But I turn my eyes back, and, 
good God ! what do I behold % Impatient South Caro- 
lina could not wait — she has taken a leap, and is al- 
ready a foreign nation ; and the great names of Wash- 
ington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Greene, no longer 
compatriot with yours, or those of Laurens, Moultrie, 
Pinckney, and Marion with mine 1 

But the evil, supposing the separation to have been 
peaceable^ would not stop there. When one member 
shall withdraw, the whole arch of the Union will tum- 
ble in. Out of the broken fragments new combinations 
will arise. We should probably have, instead of owe, 
three confederacies — a ]l!»J^orthern, Southern, and West- 
ern reunion ; and transmontane Virginia, your native 
country, not belonging to the South, but torn oif by 
the general West. I turn with horror from the picture 
I have only sketched. I have said it is dark ; let but 
one drop of blood be spilt upon the canvas, and it be- 
comes " one red." 

" Lands intersected by a narrow frith 
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed 
Make enemies of nations, which had else, 
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one." 

But you and my other South Carolina friends have 
11 



242 Subject Continued. 

taken your respective sides, and I must follow out 
mine. 

You Lave probably heard of tlie arri\'al of two or 
three companies at Charleston, in the last six weeks, 
and you may hear that as many more have followed. 
There is nothing inconsistent with the President's mes- 
sage in these movements. The intention simply is, 
that the forts in the harbor shall not be wrested from 
the United States. I believe it is not apprehended 
that the State authorities contemplate any attack, at 
least in the present condition of things, on these posts ; 
but I know it has been feared that some unauthorized 
multitude, under sudden excitement, might attempt to 
seize them. The President, I presume, will stand on 
the defensive — thinking it better to discourage than to 
invite an attack — better to prevent than to repel one, 
in order to gain time for wisdom and moderation to 
exert themselves in tlie capitol at Washington, and in 
the state house at Columbia. From humane consider- 
ations like these, the posts in question have been, and 
probably will be, slightly reenforced. I state what I 
partly know, and what I partly conjecture, in order 
that the case which I see is provided for in one of your 
bilb, may not be supposed to have actually occurred. 



Subject Continued. 243 

If I were possessed of au important secret of tlie 
Govefnment, my honor certainly would not allow me to 
disclose it ; but there is in the foregoing neither secrecy 
nor deception. My ruling wish is, that neither party 
take a rash step, that might put all healing powers at 
defiance. It is, doubtless, merely intended to hold the 
posts for the present. A few companies are incapable 
of effecting any further object. The engineer, also, is 
going on, steadily, but slowly, in erecting the new work 
(Fort Sumter, near the site of Fort Johnson, long since 
projected for the defence of the harbor), the foundation 
of which is but just laid. When finished, some years 
hence, I trust it may long be regarded, both by South 
Carolina and the other States, as one of the bulwarks 
of our common coast. 

There is nothing in this letter intended to be con- 
fidential, nor intended for the public press. "When I 
commenced it, I only designed giving utterance to pri- 
vate sentiments, unconnected with public events; but 
my heart being filled with grief on account of the lat- 
ter, my pen has run a little into that distress. Let us, 
however, hope for more cheering times. Yet, be this 
as it may, and whether our duties be several or com- 
mon, I shall always have a place in my bosom for the 



244 Crisis Postjxmed. 

private affections ; and tliat I may ever stand in tlie old 
relation to you, is tlie sincere wish of your friend, 

^^'IXF1ELD SCOTT. 

Tlie time of danger at length arrived, and so had 
tlie detachments of troops in the harbor of Charleston, 
each company astonished to meet the others. Scott 
borrowed the revenue cutter of the collector, who sup- 
posed him to 1)0 bound to St. Augustine — a supposition 
neither favored nor denied by Scott, who giving orders 
not to take letters, sailed from Savannah "for parts 
unknown " to all but himself. Passing the Tybee bar, 
the astonished master of the cutter was told to stand 
for the harbor of Charleston. The next day Scott was 
ensconced in Fort Moultrie, where, for several days, he 
lay, without the knowledge of anybody in Charleston, 
save his friend — the great patriot and moral hero — 
James L. Petigru (now lately dead of a broken heart 
at the state of the country), and a few other friends of 
the Union — Poinsett, Huger, etc., etc. 

Finding that at a general meeting in the city, the 
leaders of the quasi rebellion had proposed and carried 
a resolution to suspend its commencement, in order to 
await the result of certain compromise measures before 



Sails for New YorTc—Beturns to Charleston. 245 

Cono-ress — Scott ao-ain, to avoid the irritation the threat- 
ening aspect of his presence' might occasion, quietly em- 
barked in anotlier cutter for the North, via Wihuington, 
North Carolina — intending to return before the expira- 
tion of the (xuasi armistice. Colonel Bankhead, Scott's 
chosen second in command — a manly, generous soldier, 
was left to improve, in the mean time, the discipline of 
the troops and the strength of the forts. 

In the night, late in January, Scott reembarked in 
the lower harbor of New York for Charleston— his de- 
parture unknown in the city, and also his name to the 
master and owners of the packet. That same day, he\ 
despatched an article to his friend, General Broadnax, \ 
the acknowledged leader of the Virginia Legislature, I 
against both nullification and secession, containing j 
politico-military views and arguments not likely to ! 
occur to the minds of many civilians, and which, being | 
published in the newspapers at the time and place, had 
a considerable efiect in preventing Yirginia from plung- 
ing into the South. Carolina vortex, to which her State 
Eight doctrines made her but too prone. She was then 
saved ; but, at the second temptation (in 1861) lost in 
rebellion ! 

"The mother of States," late in January, 1833, 



246 Consultations — Siij>po)'t of Civil Aitthorities. 

passed resolutions rccoiiunendiiig that the offensive 
ordinance of South Carolina be repealed, and requesting 
Congress to mitigate the tariff. The third step, taken 
at the same time, was to ap})oint a commissioner of per- 
suasion antl peace to her wayward sister — perhaps, not 
entirely in harmony with the s})irit of the supreme law 
of the Union that prohibits " any agreement or com- 
pact" between States. The person selected for that 
duty was the Honorable Benjamin Watkins Leigh, al- 
ready mentioned in these memoirs as Scott's earliest 
and longest-continued friend — soon after a distinguished 
Senator of the United States, and distinguished in every 
previous walk of his life for virtue, talent, and useful- 
ness — whose motto always was : Right ends, jmrsued 
hy means as good as the ends. Shaking hands in 
Charleston, the two friends exclaimed together : How 
strange our meeting here, and how strange the occasion ! 
In every case where there was a liability of collision 
between the Federal and State authorities, Scott con- 
sulted with the District Attorney, Gilchrist, with Peti- 
gru, etc., always holding himself ready to support the 
marshal by force. Happily no collision fell out be- 
tween the parties. But the duties of Scott were most 
critical, requiring the nicest observance and delicacy of 



Basis of Scott's Policy. M7 

management, to avoid the shedding oii^Q first drop of 
blood ; for failing in this, tlie two home parties, nearly 
of equal numbers, and always ready for blows, would 
instantly have rushed into the aifray, and have filled 
the State with the sound of hostile arms. Nor could 
such calamity have been pent up within her borders ; 
but must have raged and spread like tlie present dire 
rebellion. 

Perhaps the peace observances alluded to, though 
great in the aggregate, were, separately, too small in 
detail for historical record ; yet nothing that tended to 
prevent a civil war ought, by patriots, to be regarded 
as trivial. Besides, the record may be valuable to 
future commanders finding themselves in similar cir- 
cumstances. The basis of Scott's policy was liumility 
and forbearance on the part of the United States' 
troops, officers, and men. The crews of the rowboats, 
which consisted of men selected on account of their in- 
telligence and sobriety— for marketing purposes, visit- 
ing the post office, and conveying officers up and down 
between the fort and the city — were made to compre- 
hend and support that policy. The general, sometimes 
a passenger himself, took that instruction into hand. 
He said to the crews, and as often as practicable to 



248 HxLiniliiy and Forhearance. 

officers and otlicrs of the garrison : '' These nnlliliers," 
all known bj' tlieir palmetto cockades, " have, no doul)t, 
become exceedingly wrong-headed, and are in the road 
to treason ; but still tliey are our conntryraen, and may 
be saved from that great crime by respect and kindness 
on our ]^art. We must 'keep our bosoms open to re- 
ceive them back as brothers in the Union. If we snc- 
cecd by such means in this endeavor, it will be a great 
moral triumph, worth much more to our country than 
crushing victories in the field. In walking the streets 
let us give place to all citizens. Bad words and even 
casting mud upon us, can do no harm. We shall show 
our courage by quietly passing along. I rather think 
that I should disregard even a few brickbats, and re- 
member^ my gallant fellows, that you are no hetter than 
your old commander! But should those misguided 
men be driven to the field by our neglect or tlieir own 
inherent madness; — should they drop the name of 
Americans, and under the wing of some foreign power 
make war upon' us, then, in tears and blood we will 
crush them ! ! " Such remarks often repeated, and fall- 
ing from an officer of liigh rank, needed, for propagation 
among troops, no printing press. They ran through 
mouths and ears of all with wonderful rapidity. 



Courtesies to Null'ifiers. 249 

Hundreds of citizens, respectable men, decorated 
with the pahnetto, visited the fort in the course of 
every week. Scott, and many of his intelligent officers, 
made it a point . to converse freely with those citizens, 
and to show to some of the seniors and most intelligent, 
tlie interior of the defensive works — always taking care 
to remark : " You see we have made ourselves as strong 
as possible, and wish it to be known to our neighl)oring 
countrymen ; because it is to be feared, that in the un- 
happy excitement prevailing, some unauthorized multi- 
tude, by a sudden impulse, may rush upon us, in ignor- 
ance, and to their certain destruction," Some of the 
graver of those visitors were, on many occasions, even 
invited by the general to dine at the officers' mess, and 
treated with the highest courtesy. 

At a public meeting of nullifiers — there was more 
than one a week — to keep up excitement — Governor 
Hamilton in a tirade told the multitude that, to try 
the question whether the Federal authorities would 
dare to stop, at the fort, dutiable articles till satisfac- 
tion of all tariff demands, he had ordered some boxes 
of sugar from the Havana, and " my friends," he 
added, with great applause, " if Uncle Sam put his 
robber hand on the boxes, / hnow you'll go the death 



250 Fire in Charleston. 

with me for the sugar ! " The ship soon arrived, the 
sugar was quietly taken out, locked up in the fort, and 
kept a secret from everybody in Charleston, except the 
importer ; because, if known, consistency in folly might 
have caused an attempt to execute the threat. 

While all good patriots were fearful of fully and 
madness on one side, and with aching eyes turned to 
Congress on the other ; — that is, while all were in the 
agony of suspense — a great calamity fell upon Cliarles- 
ton, which Scott instantly sought to turn to the inter- 
ests of peace. At nightfall, it was seen at the fort that 
a fire was raging in the city, which, aided by a fresh 
breeze, was likely to reduce everything combustible to 
ashes. The drums beat the long-roll, the garrison 
leaped from an unfinished supper, and, in a moment, 
all were under arms. Scott in his usual tone stated 
the reason for the call ; — made a short appeal to the 
sympathies of the soldiers, and asked Ibr volunteers to 
aid in stopping the fire. All ste^jped forward. He 
directed the company officers to select some three hun- 
dred men, and prepare the boats. In the mean time 
he despatched Major Heileman, an excellent oflicer and 
man, who, from long service in the harbor had made 
himself a favorite with everybody in the city — to report 



Noble Conduct of Soldiers and Sailors. 251 

to the Intendant (mayor) tliat be would soon be fol- 
lowed by detachments of men anxious to help their 
friends in the existing calamity. He was told to say 
that the troops would arrive without arms, and take 
care not to allow the crabbed Intendant time to retort : 
a j)_n General Scott and his arms ! Pm not afraid 
of them;'' but to add, in his first breath: "This is 
said in order that should you set the soldiers to guard 
banks and property in the streets, you may see the 
necessity of lending them a few stands of muskets." 
The gallant Major Ringgold (mortally wounded under 
General Taylor on this side of the Rio Grande) at the 
instant came up with some eighty lusty fellows, ready 
for the good work. He reported himself to the sulky 
Intendant, unworthy of the city and his ofiice— who 
made no reply to either of those officers. Just then, a 
citizen called to Ringgold, " Here, Major, for God's 
sake save my sugar refinery, for the adjoining house 
has caught the flames ! " Ringgold turning to his men 
said : " Do you hea/r that my lads; we'll go the ' death 
for the sugar ! ' "—a most happy quotation from Gov- 
ernor Hamilton, that caused everybody to smile but 
the Intendant, who evidently considered the kind pres- 
ence of the soldiers a most untoward event to the cause 



252 Good Effect — Courtesy to Scott. 

of nullification. Einggold's party soon tore down the 
house next to the refinery, and mainly by the aid of 
the other troops and a body of United States' sailors, 
the devouring element was stayed everywhere. 

Scott remained up to welcome and applaud his 
nul»le detachments. The good citizens, melting witli 
gratitude, had been liberal in the offer of bread, cheese, 
and cider — the soldiers declining ardent spirits, and all, 
sober and happy, were in their own beds by one o'clock 
the same night. 

Mr. Leigh, much with the nullifiers, to whom he 
had been commissioned, wrote to Scott the next day, 
that '• a great good had been effected. It works pow- 
fully." 

One otlier incident occurred during this same state 
of lingering agony that seems entitled to come upon 
this record. The nullifiers, thougli tliey regarded Scott 
askance, and with feelings bordering on honest, but 
mistaken hatred, had not lost all the brightness of their 
old chivalry, aud hence, in the Jockey Club, united 
with the Union members in extending to Scott an in- 
vitation to attend the approaching races — a sort of 
annual jubilee, which always brought to Charleston, 
in February, most of the numerous families of wealth, 



Meeting of the Joe-key Club. 253 

refinement, and fashion in tlie State. Tlie club, more- 
over, did liini the honor to appoint a man of mark as 
his cicerone for the occasion, and in case of need, a 
ready, very sufficient protector. This true chevalier 
was the Ex Governor Wilson, a staunch nuUitier, for- 
merly a powerful editor of a newspaper ; — a recent 
translator of certain G-reek fragments into elegant 
English poetry ; — in early life, almost a professed duel- 
list, but of late the common pacificator in private quar- 
rels ; — not yet old, but subdued in temper, probably 
more by remorse than age, and now benignant in 
smiles and sentiments. 

The two, Wilson and Scott, had hardly reached the 
Stranger's Stand, before Mr. Leigh, from the Governor's 
Stand, came almost breathless to Scott : " Why," he 
said, " this rash step you are about to take — a new 
fort at this critical moment, when the friends of peace 
are just beginning to hope it possi])le to avoid a civil 
war ? " " My good friend, I don't comprehend you," 
replied Scott. " Oh, there is no use in mystery on the 
subject. Here's a Washington paper (received in ad- 
vance of the mail) containing a letter to you from the 
War Department, telling you to cause Stono Inlet to 
be examined, with a view to a fort at that point." 



254 Alarm Ej'ciied and Quieted. 

Xow it was true Scott had, some time before, received 
such letter, but was astonished to find it had been pub- 
lished. It was certainly, under the circumstances, a 
most sinister publication — quite athwart Scott's peace 
policy and measures; for if a spade had been, about 
that time, put into the ground for a new work beyond 
Sullivan's Island, civil war would have been inaugu- 
rated on the spot. Happily Scott was enabled to say, 
with truth, that he had absolutely no intention of send- 
ing an officer or a man to that point, and that to occu- 
py it by a fort or troops was entirely outside of his 
military views and purposes. Mr. Leigh and Governor 
Wilson hastened to communicate this assurance to the 
liigh officials and others on the ground, all in a state 
of morbid excitement, breathing defiance and war. 

Considering the oral and v^•ritten instructions Scott 
had before received from the President and Secretary 
of War, it is difficult to imagine the necessity for this 
missile. Through some babbler an inkling of the order 
reached the ears of a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, when, in a spirit of hostility, it was called for 
and thrown out, as a firebrand among more than a 
million of States' Rights men south of the Potomac 
ready for explosion. 



Peace Restored. 255 

Awhile later Congress passed the Compromise Act; 
the South Carolina Convention reconvened and rescind- 
ed the nuUitication ordinance, when Leigh and Scott 
returned ISTorth in a state of quiet satisfaction. 

Scott called at the President's mansion. Vice- 
President Van Bm'cn, a temporary guest, came down 
to receive him, and told the visitor that he had read 
all his reports, official and semi-official, from the South, 
and kindly spoke of them with emphatic approbation. 
The President himself soon followed and touched lightly 
the same subject — deigning a few terms of measured 
praise. 

This extreme temperance of phrase on a great occa- 
sion slightly awakened Scott's suspicion that the recon- 
ciliation between the parties in 1823, was, with General 
Jackson, but external ; although the habit of his, Scott's 
mind, was of the opposite cliaracter — he, always, ac- 
cepting as sound maxims, that " more men are duped 
by suspicion than by confidence," * and that — " Evils 
may be courted, may be woo'd and won by distrustP f 
But more of the particular suspicion in the sequel. 

Mr. Leigh, who died in 1849, in a published letter, 
addressed to Edward D. Mansfield, Esq., author of 

* Le Cardinal de Retz, Liv. II. \ Proverbial Philosophy. 



556 Testimony of J/r. Leigh. 

Scott's biography, and many works of great scientific 
and literary merit, said : " I was in Charleston when 
Scott arrived and assumed command [his last visit, 
about the first of February — by sea, from New York], 
which he did without any parade or fuss. No one who 
had au opportunity of observing on tlie spot the excite- 
ment that existed can have an adequate conception of 
the delicacy of the trust. General Scott had a large 
acquaintance with the people of Charleston. He was 
their friend ; but his situation was such that many, the 
great majority of them, looked upon him as a public 
enemy. -^ * ■» ->^ -^ Jje thought, as I thought, 
that the fii'st drop of blood shed in civil war, between 
the United States and one of the States, would prove 
an immedicable wound, which would end in a change 
of our institutions. He was resolved, if possible, to 
prevent a resort to arms, and nothing could have been 
more judicious than his conduct. Far from being 
prone to take offence, he kept his temper under the 
strictest guard, and was most careful to avoid giving 
occasion for offence ; yet he held himself ready to act, 
if it should become necessary, and he let that be dis- 
tinctly understood. He sought the society of the lead- 
ing nullifiers [old friends], and was in their society as 



Suhject Continued. 257 

mucli as tliey would let liim be, but he took care never 
to say a word to them on the subject of political differ- 
ences ; he treated them as a friend. From the begin- 
ninsc to the end his conduct was as conciliatory as it 
was firm and sincere, evincing that he knew his duty 
and was resolved to perform it, and yet that his prin- 
cipal object and purpose was peace. He was perfectly 
successful, when the least imprudence might have re- 
sulted in a serious collision." 



CHAPTER XX. 

TACTICS — GENERAL KEGULATIONS — FLORIDA WAR — CREEK 

WAR — Jackson's war upon scott — court of inquiry. 

In 1834-'5 tlie autobiographer translated and adapt- 
ed to the particular organization of the United States' 
Infantry, unencumbered with a board, the new French 
Tactics on the old basis. His General Regulations for 
the arm}', or Military Institutes^ had, in a new impres- 
sion years before, dropping his name, been blurred, 
mutilated, and spoiled under high military authority. 
This, his last edition of tactics, was soon, under the 
same protection, abridged and emasculated down to 
utter uselessness, by the present adjutant-general of the 
Confederate army^ without the knowledge of Scott, and 



Scotfs Tactics Superseded. 259 

next pirated, in great part, under the immediate pro- 
tection of Mr. Secretary Jefferson Davis, by one of liis 
pets, now a division commander in the Confederate 
armyfaic(ed by another pet of the same Mr. Davis, a^ 
major-general of the United States' volunteersfSvho, 
recently, following up the old hostility of that clique, 
has entirely superseded Scott's tactics, with the consent 
of a loyal Secretary of War, and two loyal regular gen- 
erals, all three the professed friends of Scott, but who 
did not chance to know anything of tlie particular his- 
tory or the merits of the case, and through Scott's per- 
sonal neglect of his own fame and interests. "With a 
single added remark, the result of an old experience, 
the autobiographer will dismiss this subject for ever :— 
It is extremely perilous to change systems of tactics tn 
an army in the midst of a war, and highly inconvenient 
even at the beginning of one. ' 

A slight incident occurred about this time, which, 
though perhaps below the dignity of history, may be 
tolerated in personal memoirs, which are usually of a 
more anecdotal character, and written with greater 
freedom and ease. 

Scott being on a short visit to Washington, had the 
honor to be invited to dine with President Jackson, 



260 Jackson's Hostility. 

and was further compliniented by being assigned to 
conduct an agreeable lady, to liim a stranger, to the 
table, wliere lie was desired to place Ler between the 
President and himself. Towards the end of the sitting 
General Jackson said to the fai]- lady, in a tone of 
labored pleasantry, that is, \^■itll ill-disguised bitterness : 
" I see you are pleased with the attentions of youi* 
neighbor. Do you know that he has condemned all 

the measures of my administration ? " Mrs. was 

perfectly shocked. Scott promptly replied : " Mr. 
President, you are in part mistaken. I thought highly 
of your proclamation against nullifiers, and yesterday, 
in the Senate, I was equally pleased with your special 
message on the French Indemnity question, which I 
heard read.'' "That's candid!" retorted the Presi- 
dent. " He thiuks well of two — lut two! of my meas- 
ures." The lady evidently regarded Scott, like the old 
general, as a bad subject of the realm. The most un- 
suspicious nature might now plainly see that the bolt 
was forged, and would in due time be launched. 

The Seminole war, which commenced by the sur- 
prise and massacre of Major Dade, and about one hun- 
dred and ten men, December 28, 1835, may from its 
cost (about twenty millions) and duration (seven years) 



Florida ^Yar. 2G1 

be called a great war. Brigadier-General Clinch, near- 
est at hand, advanced on the Indians, and at the head 
of a small force won the battle of Withlacoochee. 
Major-General Gaines hastily collected, at New Or- 
leans, a body of volunteers and some companies of 
regulars, and soon reached Florida. He marched past 
the scene of the massacre, buried the dead, jtnd pro- 
ceeded towards Fort Drane for supplies. His detach- 
ment, attacked by the Seminoles on the Withlacoochee, 
intrenched themselves, and would probably have 
shared the fate of Dade's party, but for a prompt un- 
dictated movement by Brigadier-General Clinch, com- 
manding at Fort Drane — a man of singular excellence 
— whose sentiments had the unvarying truth of in- 
stincts, and whose common sense always rose to the 
height of the occasion. 

Clinch liberated the beleaguered Gaines, who held a 
parley with the Indians, and abandoning the great and 
single object of the Government — their emigration, 
according to the treaty of Payne's Landing — he an- 
nulled that treaty, and told them if they would remain 
quiet, they might continue to occupy the whole coun- 
try south and east of that river ! This the superannu- 
ated general preposterously called dictating a j)eace to 



2G2 Scotfs Carnpaif/n in Florida. 

the Indians! }ind went oft' swiftly to Xew Orleans, 
rejoicing! Now as the conceit made one man happy, 
it would have been well enongh ; Itut that the staff" 
officers at that city, learning that the war had been 
happily finished by a single coup de mait/re, failed to 
send to Tampa Bay the supplies for men and horses 
that Scott, tlie successor of Gaines, had ordered thither ! 
Scott's embarrassment — throwing out the ludicrous 
cause thereof, was serious and irremediable. 

His advance on Tampa Bay in two columns, by 
different routes — one commanded by General Clinch, 
with whom Scott marched, and the other by Colonel 
Linsay, was unmarked by a single event of interest, 
except that Clinch's passage of the Withlacoochee was 
slightly opposed by the enemy. The whole expedition 
returned (again by several routes) to the northeast of 
Florida for these reasons : 1, The failure of supplies, 
already noticed, and 2, The term of service of the 
troops, except that of a handful of regulars, was near 
its expiration, 

Scott was next ordered to the Chattahoochee River. 
The Creek Indians (mucli connected with the Semi- 
noles), being also under treaty stipulations to leave 
Alabama and Georgia for the far West, had begun to 



Creek War. 263 

sliow symptoms of resistance. He proceeded to Colum- 
bus on that river, late in May, with the Florida fever 
upon him. Here he soon had collected a sufficient 
body of Georgian volunteers ; but they were without 
arms and ammunition. These supplies had been 
promptly ordered, principally from the arsenal at Au- 
gusta. There was a great delay in their arrival. In 
the mean time Major-General Jesup, second in com- 
mand, at the head of the Alabama volunteers, on the 
opposite side of the hostile Indians, without waiting 
for the joint action prescribed by Scott— an advance 
from all points at once against the enemy, by which 
all would have been hemmed in and captured — flushed 
and scattered the main body of the Creeks with but 
small results. Jesup, who was well aware of Scott's 
bad standing with the President, and to indemnify 
himself for the complaints of his senior in an unhappy 
moment— a short forgetfulness of old feelings and ob- 
ligations—addressed a private letter to the editor of 
the official paper at Washington, denouncing Scott's 
dilatoriness against the Creeks, and likening it to his 
want of energy in the Florida war. 

The letter was laid before the President, who, too 
happy that the moment had at length arrived to launch 



204 Jesup Supersedes Scott — Scott hefore a Court. 

the bolt so long lield in readiness, ordered — Let Jesup 
he placed in command, and Scott hefore a Coxirt! Bnt 
Lefore meeting the thnnderer fall face to face, it will 
be best to follow up the interminable Seminole war. 

In Florida, Jesup succeeded Scott, who, with small 
numbers and inadequate supplies, had less than thirty 
days for operations. On Jesup, now the double pet 
of the President, who commanded in Florida some 
eighteen or twenty months, and had lavished upon 
him men, means of transportation, and supplies of 
every other kind beyond anything ever known before 
in war, everything depended, — with full power to buy 
up all the Indians he could not capture. Success on 
any terms and by any means — it being doubly im- 
portant to build up the new favorite, as that could 
not fail to give consummation to the blows intend- 
ed for Scott. But Jesup, with all those great aids, 
signally failed, when, smitten with remorse, he retract- 
ed his charge of dilatoriness, etc. The amende lacked 
a little in fulness, but Scott, in time, forgave. 

Brigadier-General Taylor, who won the battle of 
Okechobee, succeeded Jesup, and was, in time, suc- 
ceeded by Brigadier-General Armistead; and, finally, 
in 1842, towards the end of the seventh year of the 



Jackson — Moral Heroism. 265 

war, Brigadier-General Worth patched up a sort of 
treaty or agreement with those Indians, under which 
the bands of Sam Jones and Bowlegs were allowed to 
remain and to possess a large tract of their original 
country. 

Scott, who had failed to do that in less than thirty 
days, which, pets and others did not accomplish in 
more than six years, was now to meet before a court 
the unbroken power and popularity of the most re- 
markable man on this side of the Atlantic of the 19th 
century. 

Establishing himself in Tennessee, after attaining 
manhood, in a region where civilization was but in 
the dawn, Andrew Jackson had the heroic characteris- 
tics suited to that condition. In the frequent strifes 
and conflicts among the settlers, his neighbors, he 
himself at that period also much of a bully, with a 
born talent for command, jumped in between the hos- 
tile parties, and at once, by words, silenced the feud, 
or became the partisan of one side and soon subdued 
the other. Elevated to the bench, though unlearned 
in the law, he knew well how to enforce order. A 
bully, in open court, knocked down an opponent. 
Said the judge : " Sheriff, seize that man, and place 
12 



206 Estahlishes Law and Order. 

him at the bar to receive judgment for his contempt 
of the court,"' The sheriff soon reported : " May it 
please jour lionor, the offender is armed and won't let 
me seize him." " Yerj well," the judge replied — 
" Summon t\iej?osse/ " After a time, the sheriff again 
reported : " Sir, the man is on horseback, at the door ; 
I have summoned everybody, and nobody dares to 
touch him." " Summon me, sir ! " was the next order. 
The posse of one (tlie judge) soon wounded and un- 
horsed the offender, helped to take him up bodily, 
placed him at the bar, reascended the bench and pro- 
noun(;ed the merited sentence. This certainly was an 
effective way to civilize a rude, wild people — to break 
their necks to the necessary yoke of the law. 

His Indian wars were well enough. But, at New 
Orleans, with fearful odds of British troops against 
him, he despaired not of success ; poured his own great 
spirit into all ar(iund liim ; struck the advancing 
enemy a timely blow in the night of December the 
23d, that paralyzed him for the next sixteen days — a 
great gain — and then, owing in part to the stupidity 
of attacking strong intrenchments by daylight, won 
the crowning victory of the war. 

In short, such was his antithetical character that 



Aherrations in Florida and New Oi'leans. 267 

the fiitm-e philosophic historian will be forced to say— 
"We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;" 
for, without the charm of romance to distemper the 
mind, he took possession of a man's wife (whom he 
made his own) and shot another man in a duel, leisure- 
ly and with great deliberation, after the latter had lost 
his fire. He invaded Spanish Florida, and took Pen- 
sacola and St. Marks, without a declaration of war by 
Congress, or instructions from the President, as well as 
without necessity; and then, at the door of the Senate, 
within hearing of many of its members, threatened, on 
their adjournment, to cut off the ears of two principal 
committee men that had condemned his conduct toward 
a nation with whom the United States were at peace. 

And prior to this period, at New Orleans, flushed 
with the great victory of January the 8th, and knowing 
to a certainty, though not ofiicially, that a treaty of 
peace between the United States and Great Britain 
had been signed at Ghent, he imprisoned a Federal 
judge for issuing a writ of habeas corpus in favor of 
one of his (Jackson's) civil prisoners without the least 
color of the tyrant's ^\q\x— necessity . Yet this eminent 
man, of a double nature, was only immoral in the 
specified instances. In all else he was mild, and tem- 



268 Idolized for Merits and Defects. 

perate — excejpt when in passion — and eveu a professor 
of religion, though he entirely ignored the Christian 
injunction, " Let not the sun go down on your wrath." 

It may well be maintained that for his popularity 
with the multitude, he owed fully as much to his de- 
merits as to his virtues and splendid services. Every- 
where in the deep columns of his supporters the loud 
cry could he heard : Washington was great, hut Jach- 
son is greater I — just as faithful Mussulmans shout at 
every turn : God is great and Mahomet is his prophet ! 
The enthusiasm in behalf of the American also partook 
largely of allegiance — bigoted idolatry ; and it may be 
placed to his credit — to the bright face of his duality — 
that he did not profit by the circumstances, and in- 
trench himself for life in the Presidency with remainder 
o\'er to his heirs and assigns. 

Coming up to the executive chair of a great people, 
he was not in the least intoxicated by power ; but 
coolly appointed a friend, one of his secretaries, whose 
marriage and its antecedents were exactly like his own, 
and broke up his first cabinet because some of the 
members and their families would not associate with 
the tainted couple. Enveloped in the fumes of the 
pipe, with only the occasional imprecation — l>y the eter- 



Cool in SaGrificing Opponents. 260 

Yhdl! lie cut off the heads of more office-holders than 
all his predecessors put together. And this not in any 
sudden spasm of vindictiveness. The pleasure was 
economized and long drawn out, his partisans hunt- 
ing up new victims ; for " increase of appetite had 
grown hy what it fed on." 

Lord Byron, in 1809, visited Ali Pacha, of Yanina 
(or Janina), then an old man, and formed quite an in- 
timacy with him. Several years later the Pacha, in a 
Latin epistle, told Byron that he had just then taken a 
hostile town, where his mother and sisters had been in- 
sulted forty-two years before, and relates as a meritori- 
ous action, that he caused to be seized and shot, under 
his eye, every surviving offender, his children, grand- 
children, and connections, to the number of six hun- 
dred ! Hobhonse, the companion of Byron, describes 
the Pacha as " possessing a pleasing face." Doctor 
Holland, another traveller, compares the spirit that 
lurked beneath All's usual exterior to " the fire of a 
stove, burning fiercely under a smooth and polished 
surface." And Gait, writing about the same Tm-k, 
calls him — " That agreeable-mannered tyrant." * 

* Notes to Canto II., Stan. 63, of Cldlde Harold, and Canto IV., Stan. 
45, of Don Juan. 



'210 Scott hefore a Court. 

At length, late in the autumn of 1836, the tiiuo lor 
the certain ooiulemnation of Scott arrived. The court 
of inquiry consisted of Major-General Macomb, pos- 
sessed of many military accomplishments, gentlemanly 
m:umers, and a generous bias towards the right in sen- 
tiiiiciit and conduct, but not always of absolute ])roof 
against coniliinatious of audacious power and otHcial 
influence. Atkinson and Brady were walls of axhuiumt 
against all political violence and injustice. Such wore 
the three hkmhIxts of the court, with the amiable 
Cooper (the aide-de-camp of Macond)) judge advocate. 

Scott in his address to the court, after the ovcr- 
wliclming evidence in his favor had been recorded, had 
still to approach the merits of the question with cir- 
cumspection ; foi' the old lion, whose power was yet to 
endure several moiitlis, began to growl lest he might 
al'tci- all lose his })rey. 

It is repeated that Scott api)roachc(l the merits (»f 
the case with circumspection : 1. From his great and 
undcviating respect for the constituted authorities of 
his country ; and 2. From the reasonable fear that Gen- 
eral Jackson, still President, might in passion dismiss 
the court and the subject of investigation before the 
verdict of honorable acquittal could be recorded. Hence 



His Exordium. 271 

the tone of Scott's address; and lie never employed 
counsel or asked lor legal advice in any military con- 
troversy. With deep feeling and correspondent solem- 
nity he said : 

" Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the CouTt : 

"When a Doge of Genoa, for some imaginary 
oifence, imputed by Louis XIY., was torn from his gov- 
ernment and compelled to visit France, in order to de- 
base himself before that inflated monarch, he was asked, 
in the palace, what struck him with the greatest won- 
der amid the blaze of magnificence in his view % ' To 
find myself \\qxqV was the reply of the indignant Les- 
caro. And so, Mr. President, unable, as I am, to 
remember one blunder in my recent operations, or 
a single duty neglected, I may say, that to find my- 
self in the presence of this honorable court, while 
the army I but recently commanded is still in pur- 
suit of the enemy, fills me with equal grief and aston- 
ishment. 

" And whence this great and humiliating transition ? 
It is, sir, by the fiat of one, who, from his exalted sta- 
tion, and yet more from his unequalled popularity, has 
never, with his high displeasure, struck a functionary 



272 Exordium Continued. 

of this Government, no matter what the office of the 
individual, humble or elevated, who was not from the 
moment withered in the general contidenee of the 
American people. Yes, sir, it is my misfortune to lie 
under the displeasure of that most distinguished per- 
sonage. The President of the United States has said, 
' Let General Scott be recalled from the command of 
the army in the field, and submit his conduct in the 
Seminole and Creek campaigns to a court for investi- 
gation.' And lo ! I stand here to vindicate that con- 
duct, which must again be judged in the last resort, by 
him who iirst condemned it without trial or inquiry. 
Be it so. I shall not supplicate this court, nor the 
authority that has to review the ' opinion ' here given. 
On the contrary, I shall proceed at once to challenge 
your justice to render me that honorable discharge from 
all blame or censure which the recorded evidence im- 
periously demands. With such discharge before him, 
and enlightened by the same mass of testimony, every 
word of which speaks loudly in my favor, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and the navy cannot hesi- 
tate; he must acquiesce, and then, although nothing 
may ever compensate me for the deep mortification I 
have been recently made to experience, I may hope to 



Emphatic Acquittal. 273 

regain that portion of the public esteem which it was 
my happiness to enjoy on past occasions of deep mo- 
ment to the power and the glory of the United States 
of Amex\Q2.y—Beported in National Intelligencer. 

After a severe and concise synopsis of the evidence 
by Scott, the court unanimously approved his conduct. 
His plan of the Seminole campaign was pronounced to 
have been " well devised and prosecuted with energy, 
steadiness, and ability," and the court added that, in 
respect to the Creek war, his plan "was well cal- 
culated to lead to successful results, and that it was 
prosecuted by him as far as practicable with zeal 
and ability, until recalled from the command." (An 
account of these transactions and most of the events 
in the life of Scott, are given in greater detail and 
terse eloquence in Mansfield's biography of the auto- 
biographer.) 

The emphatic verdict of acquittal in this case, 
openly approved by hosts of his supporters, adminis- 
tered to President Jackson the first wholesome re- 
buke he had received in that ofiice. He was made 
to feel that it shook the public faith in his suprem- 
acy. Hence he did not dare to set aside the well- 
12* 



274 Jackson Shrinks. 

reasoned, solemn acquittul ; nor, would be — faithful 
to bis vindictive nature — approve the verdict of the 
court ; but left that duty to his successor in the high 
office. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

HONOKS TENDERED BIDDLE FAJVIILY SPEECH OF K. 

BIDDLE, M. C, VINDICATING SCOTT JACKSON's MARTIAL 

LAW HIS DEATH. 

Returning to his headquarters, New York, a pub- 
lic dinner in honor of his triumph before the court, 
was tendered to the acquitted by a long list of promi- 
nent citizens of both parties. The following letter to a 
committee gives the result : 

"New York, May, 1837. 

" Gentlemen : 

" Early last month 1 accepted the invitation to a 
public dinner, which you and other friends did me the 
honor to tender me. In a few days the commercial 



276 Honors Tendered the Acquitted. 

embarrassments of this great emporium became such 
that I begged the compliment might be indefinitely 
postponed. You, however, were so kind as to hold me 
to my engagement, and to appoint a day for the meet- 
ing, which is now near at hand. In the mean time the 
difficulties in the commercial M'orkl have gone on aug- 
menting, and many of my friends, here and elsewhere, 
have been whelmed under the general calamity of the 
times. 

" Feeling deeply for the losses and anxieties of all, 
no public honor could now be enjoyed by me. I must, 
therefore, under the circumstances, positively, but most 
respectfully withdraw my acceptance of your invita- 
tion. 

" I have the honor, etc., etc., 

" WINFIELD SCOTT." 

The subscribers to the dinner held a meeting, the 
Hon. Cornelius W. Lawrence in the chair, and unan- 
imously passed the following resolutions : 

" Resolved., That in the decision of General Scott 
to withdraw, for the reason assigned, his acceptance of 
the public dinner designed to testify to him our high 
appreciation, both of his private and public character, 



The Subject in Congress. 277 

we find new evidence of his sympathy with all that 
regards the public welfare, and of his habitnal oblivion 
of self, where the feelings and interests of others are 
concerned. 

" Resolved., That we rejoice with the joy of friends 
in the result, so honorable to General Scott, of the re- 
cent court of inquiry, instituted to investigate his mili- 
tary conduct as commander-in-chief in. Alabama and 
Florida, and that the President of the United States 
(Mr. Yan Buren), in approving its proceedings, acted 
in gratifying unison witli the general sentiments of the 
nation." 

Like honors were tendei-ed about the same time 
from a number of other cities, far and near, and all 
declined. 

About to quote a speech on the recent events, just 
narrated, delivered in the House of Representatives, in 
the session of 1837-'8, by Richard Biddle, of Pittsburg, 
the autobiographer cannot resist the temptation to 
dedicate a few lines to his connection with the remark- 
able family of the orator, including the General Thomas 
Cadwallader of the war of 1812-'15, one of them, by 
marriage ; a citizen of the greatest excellence, and like 
them a Federalist, but devoted in public meetings and 



278 The Patriot Familij of Biddies. 

associations, and in every other way to tlie support of 
the war after it teas declared. 

Scott's intimacy with the united families com- 
menced with Cadwalhider, a major-general of militia, 
but most worthy of a like rank in the regular army ; 
next with two brothers, both majors, Thomas and John 
Biddle, who served with Scott in the campaigns of 
1813 and 1814, and were highly distinguished for gal- 
lantry, intelligence, and efficiency. At Philadelphia, 
he also became nnicli connected, officially and in so- 
ciety, witli the venerable father of the two majors, 
the chairman of the Committee of Defence, who had 
been a leading patriot in the Revolution, and Yice- 
President of Pennsylvania, under the Presidency of Dr. 
Franklin ; with IsTicholas Biddle, an elder brother of the 
majors, sometime Secretary to Mr. Monroe, Minister at 
London, and also the same to General Armstrong, 
Minister at Paris, and recognized in both countries as an 
accomplished scholar and linguist, who was, in 1813-'14, 
a leader in the Pennsylvania Senate, where he carried 
a bill fur raising ten thousand regular troops, by con- 
scription, at the cost of the State, for the general ser- 
vice of the Union, when its treasury was without both 
money and credit. (Virginia and South Carolina had 



Father, Sons, and Grandson Distinguished. 279 

tlie honor of passing similar bills about the same time.) 
Another brother, the senior of Nicholas, the gallant Com- 
modore James Biddle, of the United States' Navy, was 
early distinguished in the harbor of Tripoli and other con- 
flicts, and crowned his valor and seamanship by the cap- 
ture, in the Hornet, 18 guns, of the British sloop-of-war 
Penguin, of about the same force. Kichard, the fifth 
' and youngest brother, though but a lad, bore arms, 
under General Cadwallader, in 1813, '14, '15, in camps, 
formed on the Delaware, as often as his native city, 
Philadelphia, was threatened by the enemy in the same 
war. He began Ms profession, as a lawyer, at Pitts- 
burg ; soon became the leader of that bar, and first took 
his seat in the House of Representatives, December, 
183Y. Here, in a service of three or four years, he be- 
came the most classical and eflective debater of his 
time. How painful it is to reflect that not an individual 
named of this remarkable family— all intimate friends 
of the autobiographer— survives ! One of the family, 
however, standing in the same relation to Scott, 
remains — Charles J., son of Nicholas, brevetted a 
major " for gallant and meritorious conduct at Clia- 
pultepec," Mexico, that is, as the successful leader 
of a storming party; next an eminent member of 



280 Speech of 7?. Biddle in favor of Scott. 

flie PliilaUelpbia bar, uiid recently a member of 
Congress. 

Ou an appropriation for carrying on the Seminole 
war, in bis first session as a member of tbe House of 
Eepresentatives, Mr. Eicbard Biddle said : 



" It woubi be recollected by all, that after the war 
in Florida had assumed a formidable aspect, Major- 
General Scott was called to the command. An officer 
of his rank and standing was not likely to seek a ser- 
vice in which, amidst infinite toil and vexation, there 
would be no opportunity for tbe display of military 
talent on a scale at all commensurate with that in 
which his past fame had been acquired. Yet he en- 
tered on it with the alacrity, zeal, and devotion to 
duty by wliich he has ever been distinguished. 

" And here (Mr. B. said) he might be permitted to 
advert to the past history of this otficer. 

" Sir, when the late General Bro^vn, writing from 
the field of Chippewa, said that General Scott merited 
the highest praises which a grateful country could be- 
stow, was there a single bosom throughout this wide 
republic that did not respond to the sentiment? I for 
one, at least, can never forget the thrill of enthusiasm, 



Speech Continued. 2S1 

boj as I tlien was, which mingled with my own devout 
thankfuhiess to God, that the cloud which seemed to 
have settled on our arms was at length dispelled. On 
that plain it was established that Americans could be 
trained to meet and to beat, in the open field, without 
breastworks, the regulars of Britain. 

* * vi- * * w * * 

" Sir, the result of that day was due not merely to 
the gallantry of General Scott upon the field. It must 
in part be ascribed to the patient, anxious, and inde- 
fatigable di'udgery, the consummate skill as a tactician, 
with which he had labored, night and day, at the camp 
near Buffalo, to prepare his brigade for the career on 
which it was about to enter. 

" After a brief interval he ag-ain led that brio-ade 
to the glorious victory of Bi'idgewater.* He bears now 
upon his body the womids of that day. 

" It had ever been the characteristic of this ofiicer 
to seek the post of danger, not to have it thrust upon 
him. In the years preceding that to which I have 
specially referred — in 1812 and 1813 — the eminent ser- 
vices he rendered were in positions which properly be- 

* Niagara or Lundy's Lane — three names for the same battle of July 
25, 1814. 



282 S_peech Continued. 

longed to others, but into Avhicli he was led by irre- 
pressible ardor and jealousy of honor. 

" Since the peace with Great Britain, the talents of 
General Scott have ever been at the command of his 
country. His pen and his sword have alike been put 
in requisition to meet the varied exigencies of the ser- 
vice. 

" When the difficulties with the Western Indians 
swelled up into importance, General Scott was des- 
patched to the scene of hostility. There rose up before 
him then, in the ravages of a frightful pestilence, a 
form of danger infinitely more appalling than the 
perils of the field. How he bore himself in this emer- 
gency — how faithfully he became the nurse and the 
physician of those from whom terror and loathing had 
driven all other aid, cannot be forgotten by a just and 
grateful country." 

* * -;f -X- -A- * -» * 

" Mr. Chairman, I believe that a signal atonement 
to General Scott will, one day, be extorted from the 
justice of this House. We owe it to him; but we OAve 
it still more to the country. What officer can feel se- 
cm'e in the lace of that great example of triumphant 
injustice? Who can place before himself the anticipa- 



Speech Continued. 283 

tion of establishing higher claims upon the gratitude 
of the country than General Scott ? Yet he was sacri- 
ficed. His past services went for nothing. Sir, you 
may raise new regiments, and issue new commissions, 
but you cannot, without such atonement, restore the 
high moral tone which befits the depositaries of the 
national honor. I fondly wish that the Highest and 
the lowest in the country's service might be taught to 
regard this House as the jealous guardian of his riglits, 
against caprice, or favoritism, or outrage, from Vt'hat- 
ever quarter. I would have him know that, in running 
up the national flag, at the very moment our daily 
labors commence, we do not go through an idle form. 
On whatever distant service he may be sent — whether 
urging his way amidst tumbling icebergs, toward the 
pole, or fainting in the unwholesome heats of Florida 
— I would enable him, as he looks up to that flag, 
to gather hope and strength. It should impart to 
him a proud feeling of confidence and security. He 
should know that the same emblem of majesty and 
justice floats over the councils of the nation ; and 
that in its untarnished lustre we have all a com- 
mon interest and a common sympathy. Then, sir, 
and not before, will you have an army or a navy 



284: Ma/i'tial Law at Home. 

worthy to sustaiu and to perpetuate the glory of former 
days." 

Before entering on a new administration, disregard- 
ing the rigors of chronology, in favor of continuity of 
subjects, the autobiographer adds two more notices of 
General Jackson. The following 7'eview was written 
by Scott, pending a discussion in Congress on a l)ill to 
refund the fine levied by Judge Hall for Jackson's ar- 
rest of the judge. 

From the JVational Intelligencer of January 4, 1843. 

''^Martial Laio, hy a Kentuckiam, ', four Essays^ repub- 
lished in the jpo/mjphlet form^ from the Louisville 
Jov/mal, 1842 ; pj>. 14." 

" This timely publication, understood to be from 
the pen of a distinguished ex-judge of the Kentucky 
Court of Appeals,* discusses, with much learning and 
ability, the extraordinary doctrines recently avowed in 
Congress and elsewhere, attributing to a commander 
of an army in the field, the right to proclaim and en- 

* S. S. Nicholas. 



Stibject Continued. 2S5 

force martial law as against citizens (including legis- 
lators and judges) wholly unconnected with the mili- 
tary service. 

The monstrous }3roposition avowed has raised the 
indignant voice of a Kentuchian, and it is only neces- 
sary to read him to consign the speeches and writings 
he reviews to the same repository with the ]jassive 
obedience and non-resistance doctrines of the Filmers 
and Hobbses of a former age. 

With a view to a similar discussion, I had been 
occasionally engaged, for a week, in collecting mate- 
rials, when a fiiend placed in my hands a copy of the 
pamphlet mentioned at the head of this article. Find- 
ing it to cover nearly the whole ground I had intended 
to occupy, I shall now confine my humble labors to 
selections from my notes, planting here and there a few 
principles, authorities, and illustrations in such corners 
or blank spaces as a Kentuchian has overlooked. 

In England, the land forces in the public service 
— regulars and militia, of whatever name and arm — 
are governed by an annual mutiny act, and a sub-code 
called articles of war, made by the king, under the ex- 
press authority of the former. The preamble of that 
act always recites : 



286 Subject Continued. 

' AYlieroas, the raising or keeping a standing army 
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, unless it be with the consent of Parliament, 
is against laio, and, whereas, it is judged necessary by 
his Majesty and his present Parliament that a body of 
forces should be continued for the safety (etc.), and that 
tlie M-hole number of such forces should consist of 

thousand men, exclusive of (etc.) ; and, whereas, 

no man can be forejudged of life or limb, or subjected 
to any kind of punishment within this realm, by niar- 
tial laiv, or in any other manner than by the judgment 
of his peers, and according to the known and estab- 
lished laws of the realm ; yet, nevertheless, it being 
requisite for the retaining all the before-mentioned 
forces in their duty, that an exact discipline be ob- 
served, and that soldiers who shall mutiny or stir up 
sedition, or shall desert his Majesty's service, be 
brought to a mme exerriplary o/nd speedy jpunishment 
than the usual forms of law will allow ; be it therefore 
enacted,' etc. (when follow a careful enumeration of 
all the higher crimes which military men can commit 
against discipline ; that is, against good order and sub- 
ordination in an army. At the end of each enumer- 
ation, the act declares that every officer or soldier so 



Subject Continued. 287 

offending ' shall suffer deatli, or such other punish- 
ment as bv a court martial shall be awarded.') 

The articles of war are entirely subordinate to 
the mutiny act, and originate nothing but certain 
smaller details for the hetter government of the forces. 

It is in view of the high principles of civil liberty, 
consecrated by Parliament as above, that Tytler, for a 
long time Judge Advocate of Scotland, says in his 
Essay on Military Law : ' Martial Law was utterly 
disclaimed as binding the subjects in general. The 
modern British soldier, enjoying in common with his 
fellow subjects, every benefit of the laws of his coun- 
try, is bound by the military code solely to the observ- 
ance of the 2)eculiar duties of his jprofession^ And so 
Lord Loughborough, Chief Justice of the Common 
Pleas (soon after as Earl of Roslin, Lord High Chan- 
cellor), said, in Trinity Term, 1792, on a motion on 
behalf of Sergeant Grant : ' Martial Law, such as it is 
described by Hale, and such also as it is marked by Sir 
William Blackstone, does not exist in England at all.' 
He gives examples, in the way of distinction between 
Great Britain and continental Europe, as also between 
military persons and others at home, thus: 'In the 
reign of King William there was a conspiracy against 



288 Suhject Continued. 

his person in Holland. The persons guilty of that con- 
spirac}'^ were tried by a council of officers. There was 
a conspiracy against his person in England ; but the 
conspirators were tried by the common laic.'' There- 
fore (adds the Chief Justice), ' it is totally inaccurate to 
state m,artial law as having any place whatever within 
the realm of Great B)-itain, as against subjects not in 
the line of military duty.' But (lie continues), an army 
is established in this country (etc.) ; it is an indispen- 
sable requisite (etc.), that there should be order and 
discipline (etc.) ; that the persons composing it should, 
for all offences in their military capacity, be subject to 
a trial by their officers.' Tytler's Essay, with this opin- 
ion of Lord Loughborough, given in a note at length, 
was published in the last century, and was in the hands 
of our officers, generally, before the War of 1812. 

There is in the Encyclopcedia Britannica an ex- 
cellent popular view, given by an eminent lawyer, oi 
the same general question : 

' Military, or martial law, is that l)ranch of the 
laws of war which respect military discipline, or the 
government and control of persons employed in the 
operation of war. Military law is not exclusive of the 
common law ; for a man, by becoming a soldier, does 



Subject Continued. 289 

not cease to be a citizen, or member of the common- 
wealth. He is a citizen still, capable of performing 
the duties of a subject, and answerable in the ordinary 
course of laAV, for his conduct in that capacity (as mur- 
der, theft, and other felonies). Martial law is, there- 
fore, a system of rule superadded to the common law 
for regulating the citizen in Ids character of a soldier.'' 

Notwithstanding those conservative views, long 
embodied in the laws and public opinion of England, 
which hold in utter abhorrence the application of mar- 
tial law to any person not at the time in the military- 
service, one general, and many eminent statesmen and 
public writers are found on this side of the Atlantic, 
who ignorantly suppose that that law, described and 
stigmatized by Hale and Blackstone ' as in truth and 
reality no law, but something indulged rather than 
allowed as law,' is a part of the common law in these 
States, because mentioned in those great common-law 
writers, and therefore an engine which every command- 
er of an army in the field may indulge himself with, at 
his own wanton discretion, against the free citizens of 
republican America ! 

Is there anything in our statute book to warrant 
a conception so monstrous ? 
18 



200 Subject Continued. 

We have no mutiny act^ so called. Our ' rules 
and articles for the Government of the armies of the 
United States ' were horrowed from that act and the 
British articles of Avar (in part), July 30, 1775, before 
the Declaration of Independence. The code was en- 
larged by the old Congress from the same sources, 
September 20, 17TG. In this form it was enacted by 
the first Congress under the Constitution ; and again 
reenacted, substantially the same, April 10, 1806, as it 
stands at present. The act consists of but three sec- 
tions. The first declares : ' The following shall be the 
rules and articles by which the armies of the United 
States shall be governed ; ' and gives one hundred and 
one articles. Each article is confined, in express terms, 
to the persons composing the army. The next — the 
celebrated second section — contains the only exception ; 
and what an exception ! It is in tliese words: 

' In time of war, all persons not citizens of, (n* 
owing allegiance to, the United States of America, 
who shall be found lurking, as spies^ in or about the 
fortifications o^ encampments of the armies of the 
United States, or any of them, shall suffer death, ac- 
cording to the law and usage of nations, by sentence 
of a general court martial.' 



Subject Continued. 291 

' Not citizens,' because if citizens, and found so 
' lurkino; ,' tlie crime would be tliat of treason — ' ad- 
hering to [our] enemies, giving them aid and comfort ; ' 
and is so defined by the Constitution. 

The third, or remaining section of our military 
code, merely repeals the previous act, which adopted 
the resolves of the old Congress for governing the 
army. 

There is nothing, then, in this code to give the 
slightest pretence that any part of it can, by possibility, 
be applied to citizens not attached to an army. 

A Kentuohian further argues against such barba- 
rian application, from the silence of the Constitution. 
But, in a matter so infinitely important to the existence 
of free government and our civil liberties, the Constitu- 
tion is not silent. The fifth amendment expressly de- 
clares : ' ISTo person shall be held to answer for a capi- 
tal or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a present- 
ment or indictment of a grand jury, ' except in cases 
arising in the la,nd or naval forces, or in the militia 
when in actual service, in time of toar or puhlic danger.'' 
(The militia, by the previous article 1, section 8, can 
only be called out 'to execute the laws of the Union, 
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.') And the 



202 Suhject Continued. 

6tli aniendnient is to the same eifect : ' In all crimiual 
prosecutions (the exception of military persons, as 
above, being understood) the accused shall enjoy the 
right to a speedy and piihlic trial by an impartial jitry.'' 
(Military courts always deliberate in secrecy.) 

If these amendments do not expressly secure the 
citizen, not belonging to an army, from the possibility 
of being dragged before a council of war or court 
7nartialy for any crime, or on any pretence whatsoever, 
then there can be no security for any human right un- 
der human institutions ! 

Congress and the President could not, if they were 
unanimous, proclaim martial law over any portion of 
the United States, without first throwing those amend- 
ments into the fire. And if Mr. President Madison 
(begging pardon of his memory for tlic violent suppo- 
sition) had sent an order to General Jackson to estab- 
lish the odious code over the citizens of New Orleans 
during, before, or after the siege of that capital, it 
would have been the duty of the general, under his 
oath to obey the Constitution, to have withheld obedi- 
ence ; for, by the 9th article of war (the only one on or- 
ders), officers are not required to obey any but ' lawful 
commands ' 



S'uhject Continued. 293 

General Jackson ' took the responsibility ' with 
as little of necessity, or even utility, as of law. Li tins 
he stands distinguished from every American command- 
er from the Declaration of Independence down to the 
present day. The Constitution— not the writ of habeas 
cm-pus merely — being suspended, he imprisoned Mr. 
Louallier ; he imprisoned the Federal Judge (Hall) for 
issuing a writ of haheas corjpus to inquire into the cause 
of that imprisonment ; and he imprisoned the United 
States' District Attorney (Dick) for seeking to procure 
from a State judge a writ of habeas corpus for the 
Federal judge. Mr. Louallier, a citizen of the United 
States (by the treaty of Louisiana), a highly respectable 
member of the State Senate, and in no way connected 
with the army, was put on trial for his life, before a 
court martial, on five several imaginary charges. One 
of these was for being a spij, under the second section, 
given above ! Whatever may be our astonishment at 
the fact that a court of American officers should have 
proceeded, under illegal orders, to try such a prisoner 
on such charges, they saved themselves and the country 
from that last of degradations— the finding the prisoner 
guilty because accused by the commanding general. 
Mr. Louallier was acquitted. 



294 Subject Continued. 

AVheu Pompey played the petty tyrant at Sicily, 
as the lieutenant of that master-despot Sylla, he sum- 
moned before him the Mamertines. That people re- 
fused to ap})ear, alleging that they stood excused by 
an ancient })rivilege granted them by the Komans. 
' What ! ' said Sylla's lieutenant ; ' will you never have 
done with citing laws and privileges to men who wear 
swords ! ' Roman liberty had already been lost in the 
distemperature of the times. Inter anna silent leges 
found its way into om* young republic in the thirty- 
ninth year of its existence. 

If Pompey had gained the battle of Pharsalia, 
would his odious reply to the Mamertines have been 
forgiven by the lovers of law and of human liberty ? 
With such maxims of governTnent^ it was of little con- 
sequence to the Poman world that Ciiesar won the day. 
A Yerres would have been as good as either. 

For the glorious defence of Xew Orleans, Con- 
gress voted thanks and a gold medal to the hero. 
That measure of justice was short at both ends. Cen- 
sure and a monument should have heen added. 

That all soldiers in our republic do not concur in 
the maxims above reprobated, a striking example lies 
before me. In the general regulations for the army, 



Subordination to CiA)il Authority. 295 

drawn up in 1825 by one of oin- officers [Scott] and 
cheerfully obeyed hy all, we bave tbis bead : ' Subordi- 
nation to the civil authorities / ' and under it, tbe fol- 
lowing : 

' Respect and obedience to tbe civil autborities of 
tbe land is tbe duty of all citizens, and more particular- 
ly of tliose wbo are armed in tbe public service. 

' An individual officer or soldier wbo resists the 
civil authority, will do so at bis peril, as in tbe case of 
any other citizen ; but union or concert between two 
or more military men in such resistance, whether vol- 
untary or hy order, would be a much more serious 
offence, and is, therefore, positively prohibited. 

' A civil officer charged with tbe execution of civil 
process will, on making known bis character, be freely 
permitted to pass and repass all guards and sentinels. 

' In tbe case of criminal process, issued by tbe civil 
authority against military persons, all officers are ex- 
pressly required by tbe 33d article of war to gi\'e active 
aid and assistance.' 

This article of war is too remarkable to be omit- 
ted here. Like tbe mutiny act of England, it speaks 
of 'the known laws of tbe land,' in contradistinction 
and as superior to the martial code. Under it. Gen- 



206 Suhject Continued. 

eral Jackson's own officers were bound to aid in causing 
the writ of Iialeas cor])\i8 to be executed against Lim, 
as also in executing the precept for his appearance 
before the judge, if lie had refused to appear, and to 
submit to the sentence of the court. The article is a 
part of the law of Congress and of the Constitution, 
being enacted in strict pursuance to the latter. 

' Article 33. When any commissioned officer or 
soldier shall be accused of a capital crime or of having 
used violence, or committed any offence against the per- 
sons or property of any citizen of any of the United 
States, such as is punishable hy the hnown laws of the 
land., the commanding officer and officers of every regi- 
ment, troop or company, to which the persons so ac- 
cused shall belong, are hereby required, upon applica- 
tion duly made l)y, or in behalf of, the party or parties 
injured, to use their utmost endeavors to deliver over 
such accused person or persons to the civil magistrate, 
and likewise to l)e aiding and assisting to the officers of 
justice in apprehending and securing the person or 
persons so accused, in oitler to bring him or them to 
trial. If any commanding officer or officers shall wil- 
fully neglect, or shall refuse, upon the a})plication afore- 
said, to deliver over such accused person or persons, to 



Subject Gontinued. 297 

the civil magistrates, or to be aiding and assisting to 
the officers of justice, in apprehending sucli person or 
persons, the officer or officers so offending shall be 
cashiered.' 

This rule and article ' for the government of the 
armies of the United States,' is as old, on the statute 
book, as our glorious Revolution of 1776, and as old in 
England (whence we borrowed it) as the glorious Revo- 
lution which drove out James II. and his martial law.* 
It is expressed in the very spirit of the Anglo-Saxon 
race — ever jealous of liberty. Undei* this safeguard — 
Avith spirited citizens, independent judges, and obedi- 
ent soldiers, taught their duties to the civil authorities 
— what military officer dare to suspend the Constitu- 
tion, or the writ of habeas corpus, or to imprison citi- 
zens — each a capital crime or an act of gross violence ? 

A Kentuckian has cited, from most of the State 
constitutions, express provisions placing the military, 
at all times and under all circumstances, in strict sub- 
ordination to the civil authority. In South Carolina, 
during the Revolutionary "War, at the moment that 
Sir Henry Clinton was investing the devoted city of 

* Martial law as applied to persons not of the army has been unknown 
in England since that great event. 
13* 



298 Subject Continued. 

Charleston, and the Tories were in arms everywhere, 
the Legislature of the State empowered her excellent 
Governor, John Rutledge, after consulting with such 
of his counsel as he conveniently could, ' to do every- 
thing necessary for the public good, except the talcing 
away the life of a citizen without legal trial.'' Under 
that exception, at a time when there was no Constitu- 
tion of the United States, to shield the liberty and the 
life of the citizen, there was no Louallier deprived of 
one and ])ut in jeopardy of the other, by martial hiw. 

It is vulgarly supposed, particularly by those who, 
' dressed in a little brief authority,' and lust for more, 
that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus lets in 
upon the citizen martial law. The suspension by Con- 
gress would, certainly, for the time, enable power to 
hold any citizen incarcerated without cause, and with- 
out trial ; but, if brought to trial, it must still be before 
one of the ordinary courts of tlie laud. In the suspen- 
sion by martial laiv, as in continental Em'ope, all other 
writs, remedies, and rights which might stand in the 
way of power, according to its own arbitrary will, would 
be suspended at the same time. Tyrannic rule could 
want nothing more. 

It is a curious fact that this writ has been but 



Wilkinson and Jackson for Martial Law. 299 

twice practically suspeiidecl-(by Generals Wilkinson 
and Jackson)— in botli instances at New Orleans, and 
never once, constitutionally, anywhere in the United 
States since the Declaration of Independence. The 
Constitution declares that 'the privileges of the writ 
of haheas corjnis shall not be suspended, unless when, 
in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may 
require it,' in the opinion of Congress. 

During Burr's conspiracy, Mr. Giles, in the Sen- 
ate, upon a message from the President, introduced a 
bill for a three months' suspension of tliat great writ. 
It was, in a panic, immediately passed, and sent to the 
House, January 26, 1807. The House, all on the same 
day (January 26), refused to deliberate in secrecy ; and, 
on the question, ' Shall the bill be rejected ? ' the votes 
stood— ayes, 113; noes, 19; a great triumph of civil 
liberty over panic and outhxwry ! 

This is the only constitutional attempt at suspend- 
ing the writ of habeas corj)ns ever made in free Amer- 
ica. May we never hear of another in Congress or 

elsewhere ! 

A Soldier of One Wae." 

It has been seen that the autobiographer, being in 



300 Scott Announces the Death of Jackson. 

Paris, got up, under very extraordinary circumstances 
(see above, p. ICC), the first celebration of tlie 8th of 
January — the anniversar}^ of the great defence of New 
Orleans. So, being President of the Board of West 
Point visitoi's, in June, 1845, news came to him, while 
a class was under examination, which caused him to 
make this short address : " Major Delafield^ Superin- 
tendent. I suspend the further labors of this examina- 
tion till to-morrow, in honor of an event interesting to 
all Americans. A great man has fallen among us. 
Andrew Jackson, after filling the world with his fame, 
and crowning his country with glory, departed this life 
on the 8th instant. It is not for any authority inferior 
to the President, to prescribe the special honors to be 
paid to the illustrious dead by tlie military posts and 
troops of the United States. Ko doubt, orders on the 
subject will soon arrive from "Washington." — And so 
ended Scott's relations with the hero of New Orleans. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

PRESIDENT VAN BUREN FINE TEMPER CANADIAN AGI- 
TATIONS BURNING OF THE CAROLINE SCOTT SENT 

TO THE FRONTIER— THE TURMOIL QUIETED SCOTT 

SENT TO REMOVE THE CHEROKEES. 

Mr. Yan Buren succeeded to the presidencj. 
With a very respectable degree of moral firmness, all 
his other qualities were in happy contrast with those 
of his predecessor. 

Few men have ever suffered less wear and tear of 
body and mind from irascible emotions. Hume, in 
his unique autobiography, says of himself: "I am, or 
rather was " (for being at the end of life, " emboldens 
me the more to speak my sentiments) ; — I was, I say. 



302 President Van Biiren. 

a man of mild disposition, of coinniaiid of temper, of 
an open, social, and cheerful Immor, capable of attach- 
ment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great 
moderaticiu in all my passions," which advantages he, 
some pages before, puts down as of more worth than 
'• to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year." 

According to this mode of estimation, Mr. Yan 
Buren, througliout a long life, was a millimiaire. lie 
entered on the presidency with right intentions toward 
his country and all mankind, and with the needful gifts 
and abilities to make an excellent practical administra- 
tor of the Executive Department — only that from the 
sense of gratitude to General Jackson, he felt himself 
obliged to work with (one exception) the old cabinet, 
consisting of members he never would have selected for 
himself; and, in the second place, he retained a little 
of his early and only weakness — an inclination toM'ard 
the exjpedient more than either of the Catos, a Hamp- 
den, or Roland would have approved. 

The autobiographer became early in the War of 
1812-'15 acquainted with Mr. Yan Buren, an ac- 
quaintance that soon ran into intimacy and friendship ; 
and he believes he was the first to suggest that, with 
his advantageous standpoint, it would be easy for the 



Stotfs Earhj Intimacy icith Him. -"^OB 

risiB- New Yorker to raake liimself the President of 
the United States. That friendship was cooled down 
-suspended, for many years-Mr. Yan Buren taking 
an active part in behalf of Mr. Crawford, for the presi- 
dency, in the election of 1824, and Scott, thongh stand- 
ing al'oof, being, in his open wishes, on the side of Mr. 
Adams. The separation continued through the con- 
test that elected General Harrison to the presidency in 
1840. The social courtesies, however, between the par- 
ties, as often as they chanced to meet, remained all the 
while unchanged. 

As soon as elected to the presidency (November, 
1836), Mr. Yan Buren, highly approved of his son's 
(T.Iajor Abram Yan Buren) wish to join Scott, then 
before the court of inquiry at Frederick, on the ground 
that he might be needed as a witness on certain points 
only known, as he (the major) supposed, to himself, 
while a volunteer aide-de-camp to Scott, in the Semi- 
nole war. Indeed, for the same delicate reason, the 
major had declined, some mouths before, against a 
strong inclination, to make the tour of Em-ope, al- 
though he and Scott (through wrongs of third parties) 
were^not, at the time, on speaking terms; and further, 
although Scott had given assurances that he could, by 



304 His Son Aide-de-Camp. 

circumstantial evidence, dispense with the major's pres- 
ence. 

His arrival, however, was of great value as a volun- 
teer secretary ; for Scott had been without an}' one of 
his staff" (two regular aids) from the beginning of the 
court. Major William de Peyster, of New York, and 
for some time planter in Florida, had marched Avith 
Scott from Tampa Bay as a volunteer aid, and tendered 
him good assistance as an amanuensis at Frederick. 

A word more on this subject may be pardoned 
the autobiographer. Major Yan Bm-en, as paymaster, 
made the campaign of Mexico with Scott, and although 
encumbered with a military chest, containing money 
and vouchers, amounting to millions, he never failed, 
at the first gun, to hasten, mounted, to Scott, as a vol- 
unteer aid, and gallantly rode through every battle, a 
bearer of orders, with his accustomed quiet smile and 
amiability. Tlie lieutenant-colonelcy given him at the 
end of this war was the inadequate reward of such 
heroism. 

President Van Buren, while in office, never omitted 
on proper occasions, to show kindness to Scott, and it 
gives the latter great pleasure to add, that the ancient 
friendship between the parties became revived some 



Canadian Patriots — Agitators. 305 

twenty years before the death of the former and con- 
tinued up to that event. 

In the winter of 183T-'8, a singular disturbance 
broke out on the hake and northern frontiers of the 
Union. A number of radicals, in the Canadas, had, a 
little earlier, begun to agitate in favor of certain revo- 
lutionary changes, with an eye, on the part of many, 
toward ultimate annexation to the United States. 
The heat of the strife soon crossed the frontiers and 
extended, in many directions, to the deptli of forty and 
sixty miles into the United States. More than two 
hundred thousand Americans took the infection, or- 
ganized themselves into lodges, bound by oath to f 
secrecy, and ridiculously enough, without ever having 
been in Canada, or knowing anything about the merits 
of the question, called themselves Canadian Patriots ! 
— eager to invade the Provinces and fight for their 
rio-hts ! ! Here was another of " the cankers of a calm 
world and a long peace." 

A circumstance soon occurred that exasperated to a 
high degree the frontier population on the American 
side from Lake Michigan to the borders of New Hamp- 
shire. A mauvais snjet, calling himself Colonel Yan 
Rensselaer (no relation of the patroons), a dismissed 




306 Burning of the Caroline. 

cadet from the Military Academy, had organized a 
number of those Americans whose patriotism was in a 
foreign country, and taken possession of a small Brit- 
ish island called Navy Island, opposite to Schlosser, on 
the American side, about a mile and a quarter above 
the N^iagara Falls. Here, after the Canadian people — 
the militia themselves — had, without regulars, sup- 
pressed an attempted revolt in that neighborhood — 
Van Rensselaer hopelessly awaited events. A little 
steamer, the Caroline, came down, December 29, to 
t^erve as a ferry boat between the island and Schlosser, 
and made fast for the night to the wharf of the latter. 
»J Before morning an expedition, under a Mr. McLeod, 
•was fitted out from the Canada side, which shirked the 
British island, where it might easily have captured the 
patriot camp, and seized, by surprise, the steamer ; 
killed several persons on board ; set 'her on fire, and 
sent her adrift over the cataract — as it was erroneously 
believed, for a time — with wounded Americans in her 
hold. This was a clear violation of neutrality, involv- 
ing murder, which outrages caused all along the fron- 
tiers, a very general cry for war — by, or without au- 
thority. 

The news reached "Washington late in the day of 



__£ 



Scott Despatched to the Niagara. 307 

January 4, 1838. It so happened tliat President Yan 
Buren had invited to dine with him, the same evening, 
Mr. Clay and a large number (nineteen) Whig friends, 
with three or four Democrats. The autobiographer ^ 
was one of the former. All had arrived, and the ap- 
pointed hour had long gone by, but still the President 
was absent. He, it became known, after a time, was 
in council with his cabinet. The Whigs jestingly in- 
quired of the Democrats if the President had abdicated 
or was about to resign. All were equally ignorant, 
merry, and hungry. At length the master of the 
feast came down, and whispered the news to Mr. Clay 
and Scott — saying to the latter : " Blood has been 
shed ; you must go with all speed to the Niagara fron- 
tier. The Secretary of War (Mr. Poinsett) is now en- 
gaged in writing your instructions." 

The circumstances, as already known, were suffi- 
ciently critical, and private letters represented that 
there was reason to apprehend the city of Buffalo 
might be seized, perhaps, sacked, by the outraged 
Canadians, to break up the hotbed of the patriots and 
destroy their depots. 

Passing through Albany, and not knowing what 
number of the militia he might have occasion to call 



308 Frontier Men want to Invade Canada, 

for, Scott, at his own suggestion, prevailed on Gov 
ernor Marcy and the adjutant-general of the State 
(McDonald) to accompany him to tlie scene of difficul- 
ties, so that no time might he lost hy a correspondence 
between Federal and State authorities three hundred 
and fifty miles apart. 

There were no regular troops on the Niagara 
They were all in Florida, or on the Western frontiers. 
Journeying through New York, Scott had ordered to 
follow him several detachments of army recruits. To 
supply the needed physical force, he had ample powers 
to call for the uninfected militia of the Border States, 
including Western Virginia and Kentucky. 

1. All this was quite a new scene for Scott, In 
1812, '13, '14 he had appeared on the same theatre as 
the leader of battalions and participator in victories. 
Now, rhetoric and diplomacy were to be his principal 
weapons, his comitrymen and friends the objects of 
conquest, and a little correspondence with the British 
authorities beyond the line, as an episode to the whole. 
Had Scott "not been a soldier, though he luid been the 
famed Athenian orator or the American 

" Henry, the forest-born Demosthenes, 
Whose thunders shook the Phihp of the seas," 



The Agitators Difficult to Restrain. 309 

his entreaties and harangues would have been wholly 
lost upon his hearers. But the memory of other days 
gave to him an influence which he would have sought 
in vain without it. The soldier of 1812, '13, '14, reap- 
pearing near the scene of his former activity, drew 
forth the applause of listening multitudes. 

2. During the winter of 1838 and that of 1838-'9, 
he was busy in exercising his influence for peace, and 
in quieting the disturbed frontiers. This was his em- 
ployment for many months of the coldest season of each 
year. The patriot movements were chiefly confined to 
the season of frost, which, bridging with ice some of 
the waters separating the two countries, greatly favored 
descents upon Upper Canada. Scott was ably second- 
ed in watching and counteracting those movements by 
distinguished officers. General Brady, on Lake Erie 
and the Detroit frontier. General Worth (made General 
1842) on the Magara, Lake Ontario, and St. Lawrence 
frontier, and Generals Wool and Eustis on the northern 
side of New York and Vermont, were active in aiding 
Scott in his arrangements, and pacifying the borderers. 
The troops, both regulars and volunteers, proved to 
be steady supporters of law and order, and were held 
everywhere ready, as posses, at the call of the United 



310 Suhject Continued. 

States marsliuls aud collectors. Tlie army officers men- 
tioned were the district commanders. 

3. Scott posted liimself nowhere, but was by turns 
rapidly every where, and ahvays in the midst of the 
greater difficulties. In these whiter campaigns against 
the trespassers of the borders, he passed frequently- 
alone: the frontier, sometimes on the Detroit and some- 
times on the north line of Vermont. His journeyinsi's 
were made by land, and principally in the night; 
oftentimes with the cold from ten to twenty degrees 
below freezing point. Daylight he chiefly employed 
in organizing the means of counteraction by an exten- 
sive correspondence and the labors of direct pacifica- 
tion. He obtained, and pressed upon Federal district 
attorneys, marshals, and collectors, information of the 
designs and movements of the patriots, and tendered 
to those civil functionaries the aid of the troops. In 
performance of his duty as a peacemaker, he addressed, 
on a line of eight hundred miles, immense gatherings 
of citizens, principally organized sympathizers, who 
had their arms at hand. 

4. In these addresses he declaimed with fervor, and 
they were often received with the loud applause of the 
audience. He handled every topic which could inspire 



\ 



Subject Continued. 31.1 

sliame in misdoers, or excite pride in tlie friends of the 
Government and country. His speeches were made 
with popular iUustrations and allusions, and addressed 
both to the knowledge and the sentiment of the people. 
He reminded them of the nature of a republic, which 
can have no foundation of permanency except in the 
general intelligence, virtue, respect, and obedience of 
its people ; that if, in the attempt to force on unwilling 
neighbors independence and free institutions, we had 
first to spurn and trample under foot treaty stipulations 
and laws made by our own representatives, we should 
greatly hazard free institutions at home in the confi- 
dence and respect of our own people ; that no govern- 
ment can or ought to exist for a moment after losing 
the power of executing its obligations to foreign coun- 
tries, and of enforcing its own laws at home ; that that 
power depended in a republic chiefly on the people 
themselves ; that we had a treaty with England, bind- 
ing us to the strictest observance of amity, or all the 
duties of good neighborhood with adjoining provinces, 
and also an act of Congress for enforcing those solemn 
obligations ; that the treaty and the laws were as bind- 
ing on the honor and the conscience of every American 
freeman, as if he had specially voted for each ; that this 



312 Suhject Continued. 

doctrine was of the very essence of a civilized republic, 
as the neo-lect of it could not fail to sink us into anarchv. 
barbarism, and universal contempt ; that an aggressive 
war, waged by a part of the community, without just 
cause and Avithout preparation, as is common among 
barbarian tribes, necessarily drags the non-consenting 
many along with the madness of tlie few, involving all 
alike in crime, disaster, and disgrace ; that a war, to 
be successful, must be very differently commenced ; 
and in these addresses he often concluded : " Fellow- 
citizens, — and I thank God, we have a common gov- 
ernment as well as a common origin, — I stand before 
you without troops and without arms, save the blade 
by my side. I am, therefore, within your power. 
Some of you have known me in other scenes, and all 
of you know that I am ready to do what my country 
and what duty demands. I tell you, then, except it be 
over my body, you shall not pass this line — you shall 
not embark." 

5. To the inquiry everywhere heard, " But Avliat 
say you of the burning of the Caroline, and the murder 
of citizens at our own shore ? " 

6. In reply to these questions, Scott always frankly 
admitted that these acts constituted a national outrage, 



% 



Siibject Continued. 313 

and that tliey called for explanation and satisfaction ; 
but that this whole subject was in the hands of the 
President, the oihcial organ of the country, specially 
chosen by the people for national purposes ; that there 
was no doubt the President would make the proper 
demand, and failing to obtain satisfaction, would lay 
the whole matter before Congress— the representative 
of the public will, and next to the people, the tribunal 
before which the ultimate appeal must be made, 

7. These harangues were applauded, and were gen- 
erally very successful. Masses of patriots broke off and 
returned to their respective homes, declaring, that if 
Scott had been accompanied by an army they would 
not have listened, but have fought him. The friends 
of order were also encouraged to come out in support 
of authority, and at length peace and quiet were re- 
stored. 

8. In the first winter, one of those incidents oc- 
curred which make history dramatic, and which illus- 
trate how much depends on individual men and single 
events. Many days after the destruction of the " Caro- 
line," another steamer, the " Barcelona," was cut out 
of the ice in Buffalo Harbor (January, 1838), and taken 
down the Niagara River, to be offered, as was known, 

14 



S14 iSuhject Continued. 

to tlie patriots, avIio were still on Navy Island.* Scott 
wished to compel tlieiu-to abandon their criiiiinal en- 
terprise. He also desired to have them, on returning 
within our jurisdiction, arrested by the mai-shal, who 
was always with him. For this pui-pose, he sent an 
agent to hire the Barcelona ibr the service of the United 
States, before tlie patriots could get the means to pay 
for her, or find sureties to indemnify the owners in case 
of capture or destruction by the British. He succeeded 
in all these objects. The Barcelona proceeded back to 
Buffalo, where Scott had immediate use for her on Lake 
Erie, yet navigable in all its length. The authorities 
on the Canada side were on the alert to destroy her. 

9. As the Barcelona slowly ascended against the 
current on om- side of Grand Island (belonging to the 
United States), three armed British schooners, besides 
batteries on tlie laud, were in position, as the day be- 
fore, to sink her as she came out from behind that 
island. On the 16th of January, Scott and Governor 
Marcy stood on the American shore opposite that point, 
watching events. The smoke of the approaching boat 
could be seen in the distance, and the purpose of the 
Britisli was perfectly evident in all their movements. 

* Sa Niles's Register, 337. 



Conflict of Arms Imminent. 315 

The batteries on our side were promptly put in posi- 
tion. The matches were lighted. All was ready to 
return the British fire. There was a crisis ! 

10. The day before this, when it was supposed the 
Navy Island people were coming up the same channel 
in other craft, and before it was known that the Barce- 
lona had accepted his oflfered engagement, Scott wrote 
on his knee, and despatched by an aide-de-camp, the 
fo)llowing note : 



To the Commanding Oflicer of the Armed British 
Vessels in the Niagara. 

Headquarters, Eastern Ditision 
U. S. Army, two miles below 
Black Rock, January 15, 1838 

11. Sie: 

With his excellency the Governor of JSTew York, 
who has troops at hand,* we are here to enforce the 
neutrality of the United States, and to protect our own 
soil or waters from violation. The proper civil officers 

* These men were, in strictness, not yet under Scott's command, sim- 
ply from the want of time to muster them into the service of the United 
States — a ceremony of some hours. 



31 G Confiict Imminent. 

are also present to arrest, if practicable, the leaders of 
the expedition on foot against Upper Canada. 

12. Under these circumstances, it gives me pain 
to perceive the armed vessels, mentioned, anchored in 
our Avaters, with the probable intention to fire upon 
that expedition moving in the same waters. 

13. Unless the expedition should first attack — in 
w^hieh case we shall interfere — we shall be obliged to 
consider a discharge of shot or shell from or into our 
vraters, from the armed schooners of her Majesty, as an 
act seriously compromising the neutrality of the two 
nations. I hope, therefore, that no such unpleasant 
incident may occur. 

I have the honor to remain, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 

14. The same intimation was repeated and explained 
the next morning, January 16th, to a captain of the 
British army, who had occasion to wait upon Scott on 
other business, and who immediately returned. It was 
just then that the Barcelona moved up the current of 
the jSTiagara. The cannon on either shore were point- 
ed, the matches lighted, and thousands stood in sus- 
pense. On the jutting pier of Black Kock, in \new of 



The Frontiers Quieted — Change of Duty. 317 

all, stood the tall form of Scott, in full uniform, watch- 
ing the approaching boat. On Scott's note and his 
personal assm*ances, alone depended the qnestion of 
PEACE or WAR. Happily, these assurances had their 
just effect. The Barcelona passed along. The British 
did not fire. The matches were extinguished, and the 
two nations, guided by wise counsels, resumed their 
usual way. 

(The fourteen numbered paragraphs immediately 
preceding, are quoted, omitting complimentary epi- 
thets, almost literally from Mansfield's Life and Services 
of the autobiographer, from whose copious notes — omit- 
ting those epithets of the partial editor — they had been 
copied, including the quotation from Byron.) 

The frontiers being for the time quieted by the 
means narrated, by the thaw of the spring, and the re- 
turn of the farming season of industry, Scott was called 
to Washington and ordered thence to the Southwest — 
charged with the delicate duty of removing the Chero- 
kee Indians, under certain treaty stipulations, to their 
new country on the upper Arkansas River. This work 
unavoidably fell upon the military, and with carte 
hlanche, from President Van Buren, under his sign 
manual— Mr. Secretary Poinsett being very ill — Scott 



318 Removal of Cherohee Indians. 

undertook the painful duty — with the firm resolve that 
it should be done judiciously, if possible, and, certainly, 
in mercy. 

The number of volunteers called for by Scott's pre- 
decessor (Colonel Lindsay) in that special command, 
independent of a few regulars, was overwhelming. 
Hence resistance on the part of the Indians would 
have been madness. The Cherokees were an interest- 
ing people — the greater number Christians, and many 
as civilized as their neighbors of the wliite race. Be- 
tween the two colors intermarriages had been frequent. 
They occupied a contiguous territory — healthy moun- 
tains, valleys, and plains lying in North Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Most of their lead- 
ing men had received good educations, and possessed 
much ability. Some were quite wealtliy in cultivated 
farms, good houses, cattle of every kind, and tieg^'o 
slaves. Gardens and orchards were seen everywhere, 
and the women graceful, with, in many cases, added 
beauty. Of course the mixed races are here particular- 
ly alluded to. The mountaineers were still wild men, 
but little on this side of their primordial condition. 

The IS'orth Carolinians and Tennesseans were kind- 
ly disposed toward their red brethren. The Alabami- 



Siibject Continued. 319 

ans much less so. The great difficulty was with the 
Georgians (more than half the army), between whom 
and the Cherokees there had been feuds and wars for 
many generations. The reciprocal hatred of the two 
races was probably never surpassed. Almost every 
Georgian, on leaving home, as well as after arrival at 
!N^ew Echota, — the centre of the most populous district 
of the Indian territory — vowed never to return with- 
out having killed at least one Indian. This ferocious 
language was the more remarkable as the great body 
of these citizens — perhaps, seven in ten — were profes- 
, sors of religion. The Methodist, Baptist, and other 
ministers of the Gospel of Mercy, had been extensive- 
ly abroad among them ; but the hereditary animosity 
alluded to caused the Georgians to forget, or, at least, 
to deny, that a Cherokee was a human being. It was, 
however, to that general religious feeling which Scott 
had witnessed in the Georgia troops, both in Florida 
and on the Chattahoochee in 1836, that he now meant 
to appeal, and on which he placed his hopes of avoid- 
ing miurder and other atrocities. And as will be seen 
that blessed sentiment responded. 

The autobiographer arrived at the Cherokee Agency, 
a small village on the Hiawassee, within the edge of U^ 



320 Subject Continued. 

Tennessee, early in May, 1838, and published the sub- 
joined addresses to the troops and Indians. Both were 
l»rinted at tlie neighboring village, Athens, and to 
show singleness of feeling and policy, the two papers 
were very extensively circulated together, among all 
concerned. 



Extracts from General Orders., or the Address to the 
Troops. 



Headquarters, Eastern Division, 
Cherokee Agency, May 17, 1838. 



Considering the number and temper of the mass 
to be removed, together with the extent and fastnesses 
of the country occupied, it will readily occur that sim- 
ple indiscretions, acts of harshness and cruelty on the 
part of our troops may lead, step by step, to delays, to 
impatience, and exasperation, and, in the end, to a gen- 
eral war and caraage — a result, in the case of tJiese par- 
ticular Indians, utterly abhorrent to the generous sym- 
pathies of the whole Americaji people. Every possible 
kindness, compatible with the necessity of removal, 
must, therefore, be shown l)y tlie troops ; and if, in tlie 
ranks, a despicable individual should be found capable 



Subject Continued. 321 

of inflicting a wanton injury or insult on any Clierokee 
man, woman, or child, it is hereby made the special 
duty of the nearest good officer or man instantly to 
interpose, and to seize and consign the guilty wretch 
to the severest penalty of the laws. The major-general 
is fully persuaded that this injunction will not be neg- 
lected by the brave men under his command, who can- 
not be otherwise than jealous of their own honor and 
that of their country. 

" By early and persevering acts of kindness and 
humanity, it is impossible to doubt that the Indians 
may soon be induced to confide in the aiTuy, and, in- 
stead of fleeing to mountains and forests, flock to us for 
food and clothing. If, however, through false appre- 
hensions, individuals, or a party here and there, should 
seek to hide themselves, they must be pursued and in- 
vited to surrender, but not fired upon, unless they 
should make a stand to resist. Even in such cases, 
mild remedies may sometimes better succeed than vio- 
lence ; and it cannot be doubted, if we get possession 
of the women and children first, or first capture the 
men, that, in either case, the outstanding members of 
the same families will readily come in on the assurance 

of forgiveness and kind treatment. 
14* 



322 Suhjeci Continued. 

" Every captured man, as well as all who surrender 
themselves, must be disarmed, with the assurance that 
theu' weapons will he carefully preserved and restored 
at, or beyond the Mississippi. In either case, the men 
will be guarded and escorted, except it may be where 
their women and children are safely secured as hosta- 
ges ; but, in general, families in our possession will not 
be separated, unless it be to send men, as runners, to 
invite others to come in. 

" It may happen that Indians will be found too sick, 
in the opinion of the nearest surgeon, to be removed to 
one of the depots indicated above. In every such case, 
one or more of the family or the friends of the sick 
person will be left in attendance, with ample subsist- 
ence and remedies, and the remainder of the family 
removed by the troops. Infants, superannuated per- 
sons, lunatics, and women in helpless condition, will 
all, in the removal, require peculiar attention, which 
the brave and humane will seek to adapt to the neces- , 
sities of the several cases." _.<,-<*^ 



Subject Continued. ti23 



''MAJOR -GENERAL SCOTT, of the United 
States' Army, sends to the Cherokee people remain- 
ing in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and 
Alabama this 

ADDRESS. 

" Clierokees : — The President of the United States 
has sent me, with a powerful army, to cause jou, in 
obedience to the treaty of 1835, to join that part of 
your people who are already established in prosperity 
on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhappily, the 
two years which were allowed for the purpose, you 
have sufi'ered to pass away without following, and with- 
out making any preparation to follow, and now, or by 
the time that this solemn address shall reach your dis- 
tant settlements, the emigration must be commenced in 
haste, but, I hope, without disorder. I have no power, 
by granting a farther delay, to correct the eiTor that 
you have committed. The full moon of May is already 
on the wane, and before another shall liave passed 
away, every Cherokee man, woman, and child, in tliose 
States, must be in motion to join their brethren in the 
far West. 



324 Suhject Continued. 

" My friends — This is no sudden determination on 
the part of the President, whom you and I must now 
obey. By the treaty, the emigration was to have been 
completed on or before the 23d of this month, and the 
President has constantly kept you warned, during tlie 
two years allowed, through all his officers and agents 
in this country, that the treaty would be enforced. 

" I am come to carry out that determination. My 
troops already occupy many positions in the country 
that you are to abandon, and thousands and thousands 
are approaching from every quarter, to render resist- 
ance and escape alike hopeless. All those troops, regu- 
lar and militia, are your friends. Receive them and 
confide in them as such. Obey them wlien tliey tell 
you that you can remain no longer in this country. 
Soldiers are as kind-hearted as brave, and tlie desire of 
every one of us is to execute our painful duty in mercy. 
We are commanded by the President to act toward you 
in that spirit, and such is also the wisli of tlie whole 
people of America. 

" Chiefs, head men, and warriors — Will you then, 
by resistance, compel us to resort to arms ? God for- 
bid ! Or will you, by flight, seek to hide yourselves in 
mountains and forests, and thus oblige us to hunt you 



Subject Continued. 325 

down ? Remember that, in pursuit, it may be impossi- 
ble to avoid conflicts. The blood of the white man, or 
the blood of Ihe red man, may be spilt, and if spilt, 
however accidentally, it may be impossible for the dis- 
creet and humane among you, or among us, to prevent 
a general war and carnage. Think of this, my Chero- 
kee brethren ! I am an old warrior, and have been 
present at many a scene of slaughter ; but spare me, I 
beseech you, the horror of witnessing the destruction 
of the Cherokees. 

" Do not, I invite you, even wait for the close ap- 
proach of the troops ; but make such preparations for 
emigration as you can, and hasten to this place, to 
Ross's Landing, or to Gunter's Landing, where you 
will all be received in kindness by officers selected for 
the purpose. You will find food for all, and clothing 
for the destitute, at eitlier of tliose places, and thence 
at your ease, and in comfort, be transported to your 
new homes according to the terms of the treaty. 

" This is the address of a warrior to warriors. May 
his entreaties be kindly received, and may the God of 
both prosper the Americans and Cherokees, and preserve 
them long in peace and friendship with each other. 

"WmFIELD SCOTT." 



326 Subject Continued. 

There was some delav in bringing in the mountain- 
eers of North Carolina ; but most of the people residing 
in Tennessee and Alabama were readily collected for 
emigration. Scott remained with the Georgians, and 
followed up his printed addresses by innumerable les- 
sons and entreaties. 

Tlie latter troops commenced in tlieir own State the 
collection of the Indians, with their movable effects, 
May 26. Scott looked on in painful anxiety. Food 
in abundance had been provided at the depots, and 
wagons accompanied every detachment of troops. The 
Georgians distinguished themselves by their humanity 
and tenderness. Before the first night thousands — 
men, women, and children — sick and well were brought 
in. Poor creatures ! They had obstinately refused to 
prepare for the removal. Many arrived lialf-starved, 
but refused the food that was pressed upon them. At 
length, the children, with less pride, gave way, and 
next their parents. The Georgians were the waiters 
on the occasion — many of them with flowing tears. 
The autobiographer has never witnessed a scene of 
deeper pathos. 

Some cheerfulness, after awhile, began to show it- 
self, Vv'hen, counting noses, one family found that a 



^' 



Subject Continued. 327 

child, another an aged aunt, etc., had been left 
behind. Instantly dozens of the volunteers asked for 
wagons, or saddle horses, with guides, to bring in the 
missing. 

In a few days, without shedding a drop of blood, 
the Indians, with the exception of small fragments, 
were collected — those of ISforth Carolina, Georgia, and 
Tennessee, at the Agency, in a camp twelve miles by 
four ; well shaded, watered with perennial springs, and 
flanked by the Hiawassee. The locale was happily 
chosen, as a most distressing drought of some four 
months — counting from about the middle of June — 
came upon tlie whole Southwestern country, that 
stopped any movement to tlie West till November; 
for the Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas Eivers 
ceased to be navigable by the beginning of July ; and 
on the land route, to the Arkansas, there were many 
spaces of twenty, forty, and even sixty miles, without 
sufficient water for the inhabitants and their cattle. 
The other camps of emigration were also shaded and 
watered. Scott caused the few sick to be well attended 
by good physicians ; all pro]3er subjects to be vacci- 
nated ; rode through the principal camp ahnost daily, 
and having placed the emigration in the hands of the 



i. 



328 Suhject Continued. 

Cherokee authorities themselves — after winniiio; the 
confidence of all — was at liberty, at an early day, to 
the great benefit of the treasury, to send all the volun- 
teei*s to their respective homes, except a single com- 
pany. A regiment of regulars, to meet contingencies, 
was also I'etained. Two others were despatched to 
Florida and the Canada frontiers. The company of 
volunteei*s (Tennesseeans) were a body of respectable 
citizens, and under their judicious commander. Captain 
Robertson, of great value as a police force. The Chero- 
kees were receiving from Government immense sums ; 
as fast as decreed by a ci"^il commission (then in ses- 
sion) in the way of damages and indemnities, which 
attracted swarms of gamblers, sleight-of-hand men, 
blacklegs, and other desperadoes. The camp was kept 
cleansed of all such vermin by the military police — a 
duty whicli, probably, would have been resisted if it 
had devolved on regular troops. 

At length, late in October rain began to fall and 
the riNiilets to flow. In a week or two, the rivers were 
again navigable. All were prepared for the exodus. 
Power had said : 

" There lie^ yom- way, due West." 



Westward, ho ! ^^9 

And a whole people now responded : 

" Then Westward — ho ! " 

They took their way, if not rejoicing, at least in 
comfort. 

" Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon." 

Many of the miseries of life they had experienced; 
but hope— a worldly, as well as a Christian's hope, 
cheered them on Scott followed up the movement 
nearly to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, 
where he gave his parting blessing to a people who 
had long shared his affectionate cares. He has reason 
to believe that, on the whole, their condition has been 
improved by transportation. 

In the foregoing labor of necessity— executed, it is 
felt, in mercy— the autobiographer was well supported 
by his Acting Inspector-General, Major M. M. Payne 
(subsequently Colonel), who, if living (January, 1864), 
is somewhere in Yirginia, bedridden, from a wound re- 
ceived in one of General Taylor's battles on this side 
of the Ilio Grande; by Captain Robert Anderson, 
Assistant Adjutant-General, since the hero of Fort 
Sumter, and a Brigadier-General of the army ; l)y Lieu- 



^ f^ ^LtA /^j^Jjlf 



330 End of the Emigration. 

tenant E. D. Keyes, Aide-de-Camp, now Major-General 
United States' Volunteers ; Lieutenant Francis Taylor, 
of the Commissariat, now long deceased ; Captains 
Page and Hetzel, Quartermasters; Lieutenant H. L. 
Scott, since Aide-de-Camp and Inspector-General, then 
of the United States' 4th Infantry, and by Major H. B. 
Shaw, Extra Aide-de-Camp, Tennessee Volunteers, 
since a distinguished member of the Louisiana bar, re- 
siding in Corcordia and Natchez — besides Colonel Wil- 
liam Lindsay, 2d Artillery, and Colonel William S. 
Foster, 4:th Infantry. Colonel I. B. Crane, 1st Artil- 
lery, participated handi^omely in the same service. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

8C0TT OKDEEED BACK TO BRITISH FEONTIEES TURMOIL 

RENEWED MAINE BOUNDARY. 

It has been said that the autobiograplier had in- 
tended to accompany the emigration farther west than 
the Ohio, to help it through any unforeseen diiBculties 
on the route ; but short of that point he received des- 
patches from Washington telling him that the Cana- 
dian patriots (taking advantage of his absence in the 
South) had, in great numbers, reorganized their secret 
lodges all along the frontiers, and would renew their 
attempts to break into the Canadas on the return of 
frost, and he was directed to hasten thither, arranging 
with the Governors of Kentucky and Ohio, in route, 
the supply of such uninfected volunteers as might be 



332 Back on the British Frontiers, 

needed to maintain the obligationsj of neutrality toward 
Great Britain. 

Accompanied by Captain Robert Anderson, Scott 
rapidly visited Frankfort and Columbus ; made con- 
tingent arrangements for volunteers that might be 
wanted, and also with the United States' District 
Attorney of Ohio for the assistance of his deputies and 
marshals in the arrest of leading offenders. Several of 
these, accompanied by a deputy marshal, he pursued 
for days. Though he lost not a moment on the route, 
he arrived but in time at Cleveland, Sandusky, and 
Detroit, respectively, to stop and disperse multitudes 
of frenzied citizens, by the means used in the previous 
winter, and thence proceeded down the frontiers via 
the places named, to Buffalo, Oswego, Sackett's Har- 
bor, Ogdensburg, and Plattsburg, to the northern fron- 
tier of Yerraont — meeting like assemblages and suc- 
cesses everywhere. 

At the point farthest east he heard of the forward 
movement of the State of Maine on the Aroostook ques- 
tion, and fortunately was sufficiently out of work to 
hasten to Washington for instructions on this new diffi- 
culty — one entirely independent of Canadian patriots 
and sympathizers. 



A New Frontlet^ Troiible. 338 

The autobiograplier reported himself in person to 
the Secretary of War, without having been in a recum- 
bent position in eighty hours. Every branch of the 
Government felt alarmed at the imminent hazard of 
a formidable war — but little having been done in a 
twenty-four years' peace to meet such exigency. 

Though the moments were precious, Scott was de- 
tained several days to aid by explanations and argu- 
ments the passage of two bills — one to authorize the 
President to call out militia for six, instead of three 
months, and to accept fifty thousand volunteers; the 
other to place to his credit ten millions of dollars exi/ra. 
For that purpose, he (Scott) was taken into conference 
with the chairmen of the committees on foreign and 
military affairs, of both Houses of Congress, and he 
may add, excusably, he hopes, that but for his exposi- 
tions, and the known fact that the whole management 
of the difiiculty in question would devolve on him, the 
bills would not have become laws ; for, besides a hesi- 
tancy in the House of Kepresentatives, a decided 
majority of the Senate was opposed to the Adminis- 
tration. 

In taking leave of Mr. Yan Buren and Mr. Secre- 
tary Poinsett, in order that there might be no " unto- 



334 Hastens to WasJdiigton. 

ward '^ mistake, Scott respectfully said : " Mr, Presi- 
dent, if you want loar, I need only look on in silence. 
The Maine people Mill make it for you fast and hot 
enongli. I know them; hut ifjf>mc<? he your wish, I 
can give no assurance of success. The difficulties in 
its way will be formidable." " Peace with honor," was 
the reply ; and that being Scott's own wish — looking 
to the great interests of the country — he went forward 
with a hearty good will. 

Always accompanied by the gallant Captain Robert 
Anderson, and now rejoined by Lieutenant Keyes, 
Aide-de-Camp, the autobit)grapher, witli carte hla/nchey 
hastened toward Maine — stopping in Boston long 
enouo-li to arrano;e a contin<>:ent call for militia and 
volunteers with the patriotic and most accomplished 
Governor — Edward Everett — who, at the presentation 
to the executive council overwhelmed the sleepless 
general by this address : 

" General : 

" I take great pleasure in introducing you to the 
members of the Executive Council of Massachusetts ; I 
need not say that you are already known to them by 
reputation. They are familiar with your fame as it is 



Honors in Boston. 335 

recorded in some of the arduous and honorable fields 
of the country's struggles. We rejoice in meeting you 
on this occasion, charged as you are with a most mo- 
mentous mission by the President of the United States. 
We are sure you are intrusted with a duty most grate- 
ful to your feelings — that of averting an appeal to 
arms. We place unlimited reliance on your spirit, 
energy, and discretion. Should you unhappily fail in 
your efforts, under the instructions of the President, 
to restore harmony, we know that you are equally pre- 
pared for a still more responsible duty. Should that 
event unhappily occur, I beg you to depend on the firm 
support of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 

The general replied most respectfully, and con- 
cluded with assuring the Governor and council that the 
Executive of the United States had full reliance on the 
patriotism and public spirit of Massachusetts, to meet 
any emergency which might arise. 

From that scene Scott was next taken to the popu- 
lar branch of the legislature, where he was also hand- 
somely received — another life -long, valued friend, 
Robert C. Winthrop, subsequently distinguished in 
both Houses of Congress, in the chair. 



336 Excitement at Portland. 

Arriving at Portland, Scott met his first difficulty. 
The whole population, it seemed, had turned out to 
greet him. All being in favor of war, or the peaceful 
possession of the Aroostook, the " disputed territory," 
all looked to him to conquer that possession at once, 
as they had become tired of diplomacy, parleys, and 
delays. Many of his old soldiers of the last war witli 
Great Britain were in the crowd ; and altliough no 
man is a hero in the estimation of his valet de chamhre^ 
the feeling is quite otherwise with a commander's old 
brothers in arms. These now exaggerated Scott into 
the greatest man-slayer extant; — one who had killed 
off, in the Canadas, more men than Great Britain had 
there in that wai*. 

Loud calls were made for a speech, a speech ! Bui 
too young in diplomacy to have acquired the art ol 
using language to conceal his thoughts, the missionary 
of peace took refuge in silence, being, realh-, much 
oppressed with a cold and hoarseness. The word peace 
he had to hold in petto, to be suggested in the gentlest 
and most persuasive accents to the hostile ears of the 
Governor and his council at Augusta, the capital c>f 
Maine. 

Scott found a bad temper prevailing at Augusta. 



i 



Ifaine and New Brunswick hent on War. 337 

The legislature was in session, and the Democi'ats domi- 
nant in every branch of the Government. 

In the legislature the weight of talent and informa- 
tion, however, was with the Whig minority. Hence 
they were much feared ; for, having recently been in 
power, the least error on the side of the Democrats, 
might again give them the State. The popular cry 
being for war, the Whigs were unwilling to abandon 
that hobby-horse entirely; but the Democrats were 
the first in the saddle and rode furiously. 

The State of Maine and the Province of IN'ew 
Brunswick were fast approaching actual hostilities, 
and if Scott had been a few days later in coming upon 
the scene, the troops of the two countries would have 
arrived, and crossed bayonets on the disputed territory 
— a strip of land lying between acknowledged boun- 
daries, without any immediate value except for the fine 
ship-timber in which it abounded. The cutting of 
these venerable trees by British subjects led Maine 
to send a land agent, with a ;posse, to drive off the 
trespassers. The agent was seized and imprisoned, for 
a time, in the Province. Much angry correspondence 
ensued between the two Governors, followed by omi- 
nous silence and war preparation. 
15 



338 Conciliatory Measures ComTnenced. 

Scott soon perceived that the only hope of pacifica- 
tion depended on his pereuading the local belligerents 
to stand oft' the territory in question for a time, and to 
remit the whole question in issue to the two ])aramonnt 
Governments at Washington and London, from which 
it had been improperly" wrested, by the impatience of 
Maine at the dilatoriness of American diplomacy. 

He took up his quarters at the same house, in Au- 
gusta, with His Excellency and other leading Demo- 
crats, and sat in the midst of them three times a day 
at the same public table. By degrees he won their 
confidence. He was known to them as the representa- 
tive, in the special matter, of their friends of the same 
party at Washington. 

The intrinsic difficulties to be dealt with in the 
mission were much aggravated by a new element just 
thrown in by federal authority and publislied at the 
time in all the papers, viz. : 

" MEMORANDUM. 

" Her Majesty's authorities consider it to have been 
understood and agreed upon by the two Governments, 
that the territory in dispute between Great Britain and 



Measures at Washington. 339 

the United States, on the northeastern frontier, should 
remain exclusively under British jurisdiction until the 
final settlement of the boundary question. 

" The United States' Government have not under- 
stood the above agreement in tlie same sense, but con- 
sider, on the contrary, that there has been no agree- 
ment whatever for the exercise, by Great Britain, of 
exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed territory, or 
any portion thereof, but a mutual understanding that, 
pending the negotiation, the jurisdiction then exercised 
by either party, over small portions of the territory in 
dispute, should not be enlarged, but be continued mere- 
ly for the preservation of local tranquillity and the pub- 
lic property, both forbearing as far as practicable to 
exert any authority, and, when any should be exercised 
by either, placing upon the conduct of each other the 
most favorable construction, 

" A complete understanding upon the question, thus 
placed at issue, of present jurisdiction, can only be ar- 
rived at by friendly discussion between the Govern- 
ments of the United States and Great Britain ; and, 
as it is confidently hoped that there will be an early 
settlement of the question, tliis subordinate point of 
difierence can be of but little moment. 



340 Aggravation of Difficulties. 

" In the mean time, the Governor of the Province 
of New Brunswick and the Government of tlie State 
of Maine, will act as follows : Her Majesty's oflacers 
will not seek to expel, by military force, the armed 
party which has been sent by Maine into the district 
bordering on the Aroostook River; but the Govern- 
ment of Maine will, voluntarily, and without needless 
delay, withdraw beyond the bounds of the disputed 
territory any armed force now within them ; and if 
future necessity should arise for dispersing notorious 
trespassers, or protecting public property from depre- 
dation by armed force, the operation shall be conduct- 
ed by concert, jointly or separately, according to agree- 
]nents between tlie Governments of Maine and New 
Brunswick. 

" The civil oJ3icers in the service respectively of 
New Brunswick and Maine, who have been taken into 
custody by the opposite parties, shall be released. 

" Nothing in this memorandum sliall be construed 
to fortify or to weaken, in any respect whatever, the 
claim of either party to the ultimate possession of the 
disputed territory. 

" The Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Britannic 
Majesty having no speciiic authority to make any ar 



Statement of the Case. 341 

rangement on the subject, the undersigned can only 
recommend, as tliey now earnestly do, to the Govern- 
ments of New Brunswick and Maine, to regulate their 
future proceedings according to the temns herein set 
forth, until the final settlement of the territorial dis- 
pute, or until the Governments of the United States 
and Great Britain shall come to some definite conclu- 
sion on the subordinate point upon which they are now 
at issue. 

" John Foesyth, Secretary of State 
of the United States of North America. 
" H. S. Fox, H. B. If. Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. 

" Washington, February 2Y, 1839." 

This memorandum gave great offence to the author- 
ities and people of Maine. They were required to 
withdraw their forces from the territory in dispute 
simply on the promise that British officers would not 
seeh to expel them hy force! — without any reciprocal 
obligation ; — the other party being left free to remain ; 
to fortify themselves ; to continue their depredations, 
undisturbed, and for an indefinite time ! This bungle 
Scott had first to adjust between Democratic authorities 



342 Ilarvey and Scott Old Friends. 

— State and Federal — lie I'oing himself a Whig! It 
was no easy thing to find a solvent for such knarled 
pei*plexities, foreign and domestic. Fortunately acci- 
dental circumstances in his history supplied the desid- 
eratum. 

The Governor of the Province, !New Brunswick, 
was, at the time, the distinguished Li euten ant-General, 
Sir John Ilarvey, of the British army, the same who in 
the campaign of 1813 was adjutant-general in Upper 
Canada with the rank of Keutenant-colonel. (See above, 
p, 99 and note.) 

The report of Colonel Harvey's kindness to such 
American officers and men as fell into the hands of the 
enemy, made him an object of respect and kindness 
throughout our ranks. Ilarvey and Scott being lead- 
ers, and always in front, exchanged salutes several 
times on the field, and once, when out reconnoitring, 
Scott's escort cut ofiT the Englishman from his party. 
A soldier, taking a deadly aim, would, certainly, have 
finished a gallant career, if Scott had not knocked up 
the rifle — saying, DonH kill our prisoner ! But though 
a prisoner for a moment, Ilarvey, by a sudden move- 
ment, spurred his charger and escaped into a thicket, 
unliurt, notwithstanding the many rifle balls hastily 



Semi-Ojflcial Correspondence. 343 

thrown after him. This was the second time that he 
had escaped from captivity, and Scott now gave strict 
orders never to spare again an enemy so active and 
dangerous. 

It so happened that in leaving the Cherokee coun- 
try, the m<z;c»^-general received a friendly letter from 
the lieutenant-^&nersi\., which, from the want of time, 
remained unanswered when the former arrived at 
Augusta. 

The reply to that letter, semi-official, was followed 
by a rapid interchange of like communications, the 
Governor of Maine reading all that was written by the 
correspondents. By degrees Scott won over to his \ 
pacific views the dominant party — only that it hesi- \ 
tated lest the Whigs should shift about, agitate against 
any compromise and thereby regain the State. This 
apprehension was mentioned to Scott by the Governor, 
in the presence of the aged treasurer, an honest man, 
but a bigot in politics. Scott, who had not approached 
the Whigs in the Legislature, who, indeed, had shunned 
him as a Democrat ; — nor had he expressed a party sen- 
timent to anybody after his leaving Washington — now 
asked permission of Governor Fairfield to speak to his 
leading opponents in that body — adding that lie him- 



344 Critical Management of Parties. 

self being a Whig, miglit bring thein out, openly, in 
support of pacific measures. At this declaration of 
party bias, the good old treasurer was thrown into a 
most ludicrous attitude of surprise and consternation, 
which caused his Excellency, though himself, at first, 
a little startled, to laugh most heartily. This burst of 
good humor, in which the treasurer eventually joined, 
was a positive gain in the right direction. (All the 
details of this negotiation cannot yet be given. There 
was, however, no bribery.) 

To bring those leading Whigs and Scott together 
required dexterous management ; for if that had hap- 
pened without the presence of leading Democrats, a 
suspicion of foul play would have been excited, Scott, 
therefore, induced Senator Evans, just from Washing- 
ton, to invite them, the Governor and several State 
Councillors to sup with him at Gardiner, a little below 
Augusta. The envoy took charge of his Democratic 
friends in a government sleigh. All the topics he in- 
tended to urge upon the Wliig leaders were given and 
discussed in the vehicle. The night was brilliant, and 
so was the entertainment. Mr. Evans — a distinguished 
Whig, as everybody knew — placed his Democratic 
guests a<^ Lis end of the table, and Scott, with the 



Progress of Peace Measures, 345 

Wliigs around him, at the other. The latter were 
sulky, and Scott's blandishments, in doing the honors 
of his position, failed to open the way to the main busi- 
ness of the evening — next to the supper — when, on a 
beckon, the master of the feast came to the rescue, and 
whispered to the Whigs (capital fellows !) that the 
representative of President Yan Buren, near them, 
was as good a Whig as the best of them ! Another 
ludicrous surprise ! Compliments and cordiality en- 
sued at once, and viands and business were discussed 
together to the content of all parties. The Governor 
understood the object of the Senator's whispers, and 
plainly saw that Scott had succeeded. A feast is a 
great peacemaker — worth more than all the usual arts 
of diplomacy. Scott had also, from the first, received 
good assistance from the Honorable Albert Smith, of 
Portland, afterward a member of Congress, who, hap- 
pening to be in Augusta, gave him the temper and 
bias of many particular Democrats whom it was neces- 
sary to conciliate. 

The work was done. Virtually nothing remained, 
but the synthetic process of gathering up all the par- 
ticular results into one general act of amnesty and good 

will. Sir John Harvey was of a too elevated character 
15* 



3-46 Negotiations Successful. 

to be fastidious about non-essentials. On being; sound- 
ed, be bad concurred at once with Scott on all essen- 
tials, and Governor Fairfield and council baving no 
longer anytbing to fear from perversity on tlie part of 
tbe Wbigs, now sent in a message, Marcb 12, to tbe 
Legislature, of wbicb tbis is an extract : 

" "Wbat then shall be done ? Tbe people of tbe 
State surely are not desirous of hurrying tbe two na- 
tions into a war. Such an event is anxiously to be 
avoided, if it can be without dishonor. We owe too 
much to tbe Union, to ourselves, and, above all, to tbe 
spirit and principles of Christianity, to bring about a 
conflict of arms with a people having with us a common 
origin, speaking a common language, and bound to us 
by so many ties of common interest, without tlie most 
inexorable necessity. Under these circumstances I 
would recommend that, when we are fully satisfied, 
either by the declarations of the Lieutenant-Governor 
of New Brunswick, or otherwise, that he lias abandoned 
all idea of occupying the disputed territory with a mili- 
tarv 1'oree, and of attempting an expulsion of our party, 
that then tbe Governor be authorized to withdraw our 
military force, leaving tlie land-agent with a posse. 



Peace Restored. 347 

armed or unarmed, as the case may require, sufficient 
to carry into efl'ect your original design — that of driving 
out or arresting the trespassers, and preserving and 
protecting the timber from their depredations." 

The Legislature, on the 20th of the same month, 
passed an act in accordance with the message, and the 
next day Scott despatched by his line of couriers, 
to meet Sir John's line at the border, the following 
papers : 



From the Augusta {Me.) Journal, March 26, 1839. 

" The War Ended. — Important Correspondence. 

Headquarters, Eastern Ditision 
U. S. Army, Augusta, Me., 
March 21, 1839. 

" ' The undersigned, a Major-General in the Army 
of the United States, being specially charged with main- 
taining the peace and safety of their entire northern 
and eastern frontiers, having cause to apprehend a col- 
lision of arms between tlie proximate forces of New 
Brunswick and the State of Maine on the disputed 



348 Terms of Adjustment. 

t^irritory^ wliicli is elaiiued by both, has the honor, in 
the sincere desire of the United States to preserve the 
relations of peace and auiitv with Great Britain — rela- 
tions which nii<2:ht be mucli cndano-ered bv such unto- 
ward collision — to invite from his Excellency Major- 
General Sir John Ilarvey, Lieutenant-Governor, etc., 
etc., a general declaration to this effect : 

" ' That it is not the intention of the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Her Britannic Majesty's Province of New 
Brunswick, under the expected renewal of negotiations 
between the cabinets of London and Washington on 
the subject of the said disputed territory, without re- 
newed instructions to that effect from his Government, 
to seek to take military possession of that territory, or 
to seek, by military force, to expel therefrom the armed 
civil posse or the troops of Maine. 

" • Should the undersigned have the honor to be 
favored with such declaration or assurance, to be by 
him communicated to his Excellency the Governor of 
the State of Maine, the undersigned does not in the 
least doubt that he would be immediately and fully au- 
thorized by the Governor of Maine to communicate to 
his Excellency, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Bruns- 
wick, a corresponding pacific declaration to this effect : 



Terms^ etc. ^^'^ 

" ' That, in the hope of a speedy and satisfactory 
settlement, by negotiation, between the Governments 
of the United States and Great Britain, of the principal 
or boundary question between the State of Maine and 
the Province of New Brunswick, it is not the intention 
of the Governor of Maine, without renewed instructions 
from the Legislature of the State, to attempt to disturb 
by arms the said Province in the possession of the 
Madawaska settlements, or to attempt to interrupt the 
usual communications between that Province and Her 
Majesty's Upper Provinces; and that he is willing, in 
the mean time, to leave the questions of possession and 
jurisdiction as they at present stand-that is, Great 
Britain holding, in fact, possession of a part of the said 
territory, and the Government of Maine denying her 
right to such possession; and the State of Maine hold- 
ing, in fact, possession of another portion of the same 
territory, to which her right is denied by Great Britain. 
" ' With this understanding, the Governor of Maine 
will, without unnecessary delay, withdraw the military 
forc'e of the State from the said disputed territory- 
leaving only, under a land agent, a small ^WA ^osBe, 
armed or unarmed, to protect the timber recently cut, 
and to prevent future depredations. 



350 Terms, etc. 

"'Reciprocal assurances of/tlie foregoing friendly 
character having been, through the nndersigned, intei> 
changed, all danger of collision between the immediate 
parties to tlie controversy will be at once removed, and 
time allowed the United States and Great Britain to 
Bettle amicably the great question of limits. 

" ' The undersigned has miudi pleasure in renewing 
to his Excellency Major-Generul Sir John Harvey, 
the assurances of his ancient high consideration and 
respect. 

" ' WIN FIELD SCOTT.' 



" To a copy of the foregoing. Sir John Harvey an- 
nexed the following : 

" ' The undersigned, Major-General Sir John Har- 
vey, Lieutenant-Governor of Her Britannic Majesty's 
Province of Nev/ Brunswick, having received a propo- 
sition from Major-General "Winfield Scott, of the United 
States' Army, of which the foregoing is a copy, hereby, 
on his part, signifies his concurrence and acquiescence 
therein. 

" ' Sir John Harvey renews with great pleasure to 



Terms^ etc. 351 

Major-General Scott the assurances of his warmest per- 
sonal consideration, regard, and respect. 



' ' Government House, Fredericton, 
New Brdnswick, March 23, 1839 



" ' J. HARVEY. 



" To a paper containing the note of General Scott, 
and the acceptance of Sir John Harvey, Governor Fair- 
field annexed his acceptance in these words : 

"'Executive Department, i 

Augusta, March 25, 1839. f 

" ' The undersigned, Governor of Maine, in consid- 
eration of the foregoing, the exigency for calling out 
the troops of Maine having ceased, has no hesitation in 
signifying his entire acquiescence in the proposition of 
Major-General Scott. 

" ' The undersigned has the honor to tender to 
Major-General Scott the assurance of his high respect 
and esteem. 

'"JOHN FAIRFIELD.' 

" We learn that General Scott has interchanged the 
acceptances of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, 



352 Terms^ etc. 

and also that Governor Fairfield immediately issued 
orders recalling the troops of Maine, and fur organizing 
the civil jposse that is to be continued, for the time, in 
ilie disputed tei^^'dor'y. The troops in this town will 
also be immediately discharged." 

With Sir John's acceptance came this letter : 

" My Deak General, Scott : 

" Upon my return from closing the session of the 
Provincial Legislature,, I was gratified by the receipt 
of your very satisfactory communication of the 21st 
instant. My reliance upon yoic^ my dear General, has 
led me to give my willing assent to the proposition 
which you have made yourself the very acceptable 
means of conveying to me ; and I trust that as far as 
the Province and the State respectively are concerned, 
an end will be put by it to all border disputes, and a 
way opened to an amicable adjustment of the national 
question involved. I shall hope to receive the con- 
firmation of this arrangement on the part of the State 
of Maine at as early a period as may be practicable." 

Dr. W. E. Channing, a leading philanthropist 



Eloquent Commendation. 353 

scholar, orator, and divine, of his day, in the preface to 
his Lecture on War (1839), devoted two paragraphs to 
the honor of the autobiographer's peace labors, in these 
words : 

" To this distinguished man belongs the rare honor 
of uniting with military energy and daring, the spirit 
of a philanthropist. His exploits in the field, which 
placed him in the first rank of our soldiers, have been 
obscured by the purer and more lasting glory of a 
pacificator, and of a friend of mankind. In the whole 
history of the intercourse of civilized with barbarous 
or half - civilized communities, we doubt whether a 
brighter page can be found than that which records 
his agency in the removal of the Cherokees. As far as 
the wrongs done to this race can be atoned for. General 
Scott has made the expiation, 

" In his recent mission to the disturbed borders of 
our country, he has succeeded, not so much by policy 
as by the nobleness and generosity of his character, by 
moral influences, by the earnest conviction with which 
he has enforced on all with whom he has had to do, 
the obligations of patriotism, justice, humanity, and 
religion. It would not be easy to find among us a man 



354 Commendation^ etc. 

who lias won a purer fame ; and I am happy to offer 
this tribute, because I would do something, no matter 
how little, to hasten the time when the spirit of Chris- 
tian humanity shall be accounted an essential attribute 
and the brightest ornament of a public man. 

" He returns to Washington, and is immediately 
ordered to the Cherokee nation, to take charge of the 
very difficult and hazardous task to his own fame of 
removing those savages from their native land. Some 
of his best friends regretted, most sincerely, that he 
had been ordered on this service ; and, knowing the 
disposition of the world to cavil and complain without 
cause, had great apprehensions that he would lose a 
portion of the popularity he had acquired by his dis- 
tinguished success on the Canadian frontier. But, 
behold the manner in which this last work has been 
performed ! There is so much of noble generosity of 
character about Scott, independent of his skill and 
bravery as a soldier, that his life has really been one 
of romantic beauty and interest." 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

POLITICS-GENEKAL-IN-CHIEF-STOPS UNLAWFUL PUmSH- 
MENTS-ATTEMPTS TO ABOLISH HIS KANK AKD TO BE- 
DUCE HIS PAY-ME. ADAMS AND MR. C. J. INGEK- 
SOLL. 

It was about this time tliat the autobiographer was, 
without wish or agency on his part, brought into the 
arena of party politics, although long before a quiet 
Whig. A convention of delegates of that party met 
early in December, 1839, at Harrisburg, to select can- 
didates for the Presidency and Yice-Presidency at the 
election in November of the following year. 

Mr. Clay, the head of the party, and General Har- 
rison were the principals before the convention. Scott 
had also a respectable number of supporters (the dele- 



356 Ilarrishurg Convention. 

gates of five States, including those of New York) in 
that body ; but Scott wrote a number of letters to mem- 
bers, friends of Mr. Clay, to be seen by all, expressing 
the hope that the latter might, with any prospect of 
success, before the people, be selected as the candidate, 
and if not, that General Harrison might be the ncjminee. 

So far as respects the younger, or third candidate, 
himself, the result is not, at this day, worth a single 
remark. But the accidental circumstances which final- 
ly ruled the convention, are too curious within them- 
selves, as well as too important to tlie future of the 
country, to be longer suppressed. 

There was abundant evidence from the beginning 
of the convention that Scott was the second choice of a 
great majority both of the Clay and Harrison members ; 
but Mr. Leigh (the Honorable B, W.), wlio led the 
Virginia delegation, and that led the other (.'lay dele- 
gations — all Southern and Southwestern men ; — by a 
singular infelicity, contrived that those delegations 
should lose both their first and second preferences. 
The supporters of Scott, after a great many ballotings, 
communicated to the separate assemblages of the Clay 
men, that if the latter did not, after the next vote, come 
over to Scott, their known second choice, they, the 



Convention Continued. 357 

New Yorkers and associates, would, in tliat case, next 
vote for Harrison, their second choice. Here the 
strangeness alluded to must be told. 

Mr. Leigh — a man of perfect uprightness of charac- 
ter, of high abilities; and early in life a passionate and 
successful cultivator of polite literature — ^had now, and 
for many years before, become the slave of his profes- 
sion — without any diminution of business, but with a 
yearly decrease of fees and increase of family — so 
fagged, for twelve and fourteen hours a day, that his 
acquaintance with the advancing world, literature, and 
politics, did not extend beyond tlie narrow circle of 
Ilichmond. Being without a rival in that sphere, and 
now for the first time in his life tln-ee days north of 
Washington ; — conscious of the purity of his intentions, 
and having made up his own mind that Mr. Clay ought 
to be the next President, he carefully avoided every- 
body likely to perplex and distress him with the con- 
trary wishes or calculations. 

Congress met three days before the convention. 
The Whig members of the former, desirous of con- 
versing understandingly with their friends as they 
passed through Washington to Harrisburg, held in- 
formal meetings, by States, and came to the conclusion, 



358 Convention Continued. 

after inquiry and reflection, tliat Mr. Clay could scarce- 
ly carry a district represented Ly one of tliem — Mit- 
chell, alone, being confident that his, the Lockport or 
Niagara District of New York, would vote for the illus- 
trious Kentuckian ; hut Mitchell could not be relied 
upon ; for he was long before the election put into the 
State prison as a forger. 

Mr. Leigh, apprehending such interference at Wash- 
ington, and true to his provincial superiority, quietly 
passed down the James River and up the Chesapeake 
Bay, through Baltimore, with a large number of depen- 
dent delegates, to Harrisburg — where he was taken 
possession of by two veteran and inveterate Clay sup- 
porters from the city of New York (traders in politics, 
but not members of the convention), who so mesmer- 
ized him that he could not believe a word said to him 
by men of the highest standing in the North and East. 
Hence, when the message, just mentioned, was received 
by tlie Clay supporters, that is, by Mr. Leigh, who was 
not only the organ, but the sole voice of that party, his 
mesmerizers told him to treat it with contempt, that it 
was a mere fetfih, and that the Scott delegates would 
be obliged in a few ballots more to vote for Mr. Clay. 

This assurance was speedily falsified, and then some 



Harrisori's Nomination. 359 

of tlie dupes, including Mr. Leigh himself — wished to 
move for a reconsideration of the vote ; but Scott's 
friends very judiciously said, "iJTo ; it is too late. Har- 
rison's name, as our nominee, will, in five minutes, be 
on the wings of the winds to all parts of the Union, 
and now to nominate another would distract the party 
and make us contemptible." 

But the nomination and success of .General Harri- 
son, if his life had been spared some four years longer, 
would have been no detriment to his country. With 
excellent intentions and objects, and the good sense to 
appoint able counsellors, the country would not have 
been retarded in its prosperitj^, nor disgraced by cor- 
ruption in high places. No one can, of course, be held 
resiionsible for sudden deaths among men. A single 
month in office, ended President Harrison's life, when 
the affecting plaint of Burke occurred to all : " What 
shadows we are, what shadows we pursue ! " 

Mr. Leigh's great error at Harrisburg is yet to be 
narrated, and referred to the same virtues combined 
with the inaptitude of one long ignorant of the world. 
All the able men wlio voted early or late for Harrison, 
were inclined to name Mr. Leigh, as a slight indemnifi- 
cation to Mr, Clay, for the Yice-Presidency ; — but Mr. 



oGO Tyler for the Vice- Presidency. 

Tjlcr, of the same delegation, wept audibly I'or the loss 
of Yirgiiiia's candidate, and intrigued quietly with the 
weaker brethren to secure that honor for himself. Mr. 
Leigh being sole committee man of his delegation on 
the selection of candidates, and the reverenced adviser 
of many others, delicately hesitated about receiving the 
nomination, and worse, from delicacy toward a col- 
league, neglected to tell distant members how utterly 
unfit Mr. Tyler was for the second place in the Govern- 
ment — nobody, of course, thinking of a vacancy in the 
presidential chair, — a case that had never occurred. 
Thus by the double squeamishness of a good man, the 
United States lost an eventual President not inferior 
to more than one man that had ever filled that high 
place. 

Of Mr. Tyler's administration of tlie excvjutive 
branch of the Government, but little will be said here. 
He soon committed the grossest tergiversation in poli- 
tics, from the fear of Mr. Clay as a competitor for the 
succession, and to win that for himself, all the patron- 
age of the Government, all the chips, shavings, and 
sweepings of office, down to the lowest clerkship, the 
posts of messengers and watchmen, were brought into 
market and bartered for support at the next election. 



Macomb Dies — Scott General-in-Chief. 361 

To tlie honor of the coiintrj, Mr. Tyler was allowed to 
relapse into a private station. 

In June, 1841, Scott was, on the death of Major- 
General Macomb, called to reside in Washington as 
the General-in-Chief of the entire army. In that 
capacity he made several ordinary tours of inspection, 
but nothing occurred in the next five years that called 
him to any mission of importance. Many specimens 
of orders might be given to show his regard for the sol- 
dier, as well as love of military discipline and efficiency ; 
but they would not be interesting to the general reader. 
One only will here be inserted to exhibit his long per- 
severing and successful efforts to stop arbitrary, that is, 
illegal, punishments in the army. 



GENERAL ORDERS. 1 Headquarters op the Army, 



^^ ^„ , Washington, Auaust 20, 1842. 

No. 53. * 1 i/ ^ 



1. . . . Intimations, through many channels, re- 
ceived at General Headquarters, lead to more than a 
suspicion that blows, kicks, cuffs, and lashes, against 
law, the good of the service and the faith of Govern- 
ment, have, in many instances, down to a late period, 
16 



362 Orders to Suppress Unlawful Punishments. 

been intlieted upon private soldiers of the aniiy by their 
officers and non-commissioned officers. 

2. . . . Inquiries into the reported abuses are in 
progress, with instructions, if probable evidence of guilt 
be found, to bring the oft'enders to trial. 

3. ... It is well known to every vigilant officer 
that discipline can be maintained ( — and it shall be so 
maintained — ) hy legal means. Other resorts ai*e, in 
the end, always destructive of good order and subordi- 
nation, 

4. . . . Insolence, disobedience, mutiny, are the 
usual provocations to unlawful violence. But these 
several offences are denounced by the Gth, Tth, and 9th 
of the rules and articles of war, and made punishable 
by tlie sentence of courts-martial. Instead, however, 
of waiting for such judgment, according to the nature 
and degree of guilt, deliberately found — the hasty and 
conceited— losing all self-control and dignity of com- 
mand — assume that their individual importance is more 
outraged than the majesty of law, and act, at once, as 
legislators, judges, and executioners. Such gross usur- 
pation is not to be tolerated in any well-governed 
army. 

5. . . . For insolent words, addressed to a superior, 



Orders Continued. 3G3 

let the soldier be ordered into confinement. This, of 
itself, if followed bj prompt repentance and apology, 
maj often be found a sufficient punishment. If not, a 
court can readily authorize the final remedy. A delib- 
erate, or unequivocal breach of orders, is treated with 
yet greater judicial rigor; and, in a clear case of mu- 
tiny, the sentence would, in all probability, extend to 
life. It is evident, then, that there is not even a pre- 
text for punishments decreed on individual assumption, 
and at the dictate of pride and resentment. 

6. . , . But it may be said, in the case of mutiny, 
or conduct tending to this great crime — that it is neces- 
sary to cut down, on the spot, the exciter or ringleader. 
First order him to be seized. If his companions put 
him into irons or confinement, it is plain there is no 
spread of the dangerous example. But, should theij 
hesitate ; — or should it be necessary in any case of dis- 
obedience, desertion, or running away — the object heing 
to secure tlie person for trial ', — as always to repel a 
personal assault, or to stop an aifray — in every one of 
these cases any superior may strike and wound; but 
only to tlie extent clearly necessary to such lawful end. 
Any excess, wantonly committed beyond such meas- 
ured violence, would, itself, be punishable in the supe- 



364 Subject Continued. 

rior. Ko other case can possibly justify an}' superior 
in CKUuiiittiug violence upon the body of an}- inferior, 
M'itluiut the judgment of a court — except that it may 
sometimes be necessary, by force, to iron prisonei"s for 
security, or to gag them for quiet. 

7. . . . Harsh and abusive words, passionately or 
wantonly applied to unoiFending inferiors, is but little 
less reprehensible. Such language is, at once, unjust, 
vulgar, and unmanly ; and, in this connection, it may 
be useful to recall a passage from the old General Regu- 
lations for the Army (by Scott) : 

" The general deportment of officers toward juniors 
or inferiors will be carefully watched and regulated. 
If this be cold or harsh, on the one hand, or grossly 
familiar on the other, the harmony or discipline of the 
corps cannot be maintained. The examples are numer- 
ous and brilliant, in w^hich the most conciliatory man- 
ners have been found perfectly compatible with the 
exercise of the strictest command ; and the officer who 
does not unite a high degree of moral vigor with the 
civility that springs from the heart, cannot too soon 
choose another profession in which imbecility would 
be less conspicuous, and harshness less wounding and 
oppressive." {Edition 1825.) 



Subject Continued. 305 

8. . . . Government not only reposes " special trust 
and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and 
abilities of" army officers, as is expressed on the face 
of commissions ; but also in their self-control, respect 
for law and gentlemanly conduct on all occasions. A 
failure under either of those heads ought always to be 
followed by the loss of a commission. 

9. . . . At a time when, notwithstanding the small- 
uess of the establishment, thousands of the most prom- 
ising youths are desirous of military commissions, the 
country has a right to demand — not merely the usual 
exact observance of laws, regulations, and orders, but 
yet more — that every oflScer shall give himself up en- 
tirely to the cultivation and practice of all the virtues 
and accomplishments which can elevate an honorable 
profession. There is in the army of the United States, 
neither room, nor associates, for the idle, the ignorant, 
the vicious, the disobedient. To the very few such, 
thinly scattered over the service — whether in the line 
or the stafi:' — these admonitions are mainly addressed ; 
and let the vigilant eye of all commanders be fixed 
upon them. ITo bad or indifferent officer should re- 
ceive from a senior any favor or indulgence whatso- 
ever. 



366 Scotfs Bank and Pay Attacked. 

10, . . . The attention of commanders of depart- 
ments, regiments, companies, and garrisons is directed 
to the 101st of the rules and articles of war, which re- 
quires that the whole series shall be read to the troops 
at least once in every six months. 

W INFIELD SCOTT. 

In this interval of comparative inactivity, high army 
rank again came to be considered useless and burden- 
some. Several movements were made in the House 
of Representatives, to cut down Scott's long-fixed pay 
and emoluments, and one, quite formidable, in its in- 
ception, to abolish his office. 

A previous motion to reduce his pay, etc., was 
defeated by a side battery, opened by the Hon. 
Charles J. Ingersoll, member of the House from Phila- 
delphia. There was another bill lying on the clerk's 
table touching the daily compensation of the members 
of both Houses of Congress, and Mr. Ingersoll argued 
that the latter should first become a law, before Con- 
gress could, wnth decency, cut down the pay of the 
army. 

Both propositions affecting Scott came to a definite 
vote in the House of Representatives, March, 1844. 



Mr, Adams's Defence. 367 

Mr. Adams (J. Q.) " felt bound to declare that he 
did think it a very ill reward for the great and eminent 
services of that officer [Scott] dm-ing a period of thirty- 
odd years, in which there were some as gallant exploits 
as our history could show, and in which he had not 
spared to shed his blood, as well as for more recent ser- 
vices of great importance in time of peace — services of 
great difficulty and great delicacy — now to turn him 
adrift at his advanced age." 

In respect to the reduction of his pay, etc., Mr. 
Adams " could not a moment harbor in his heart the 
thought that General Scott, if he had received from 
Government tliousands of dollars more than he had, 
would have received one dollar which he did not rich- 
ly deserve at the hands of his country." — National 
Intelligencer, March 30, 1844. 

" Mr. C. J. Ingersoll wished to add but a single 
word. Perhaps he was the only member present who 
could recollect the day when this same General Scott 
had been the first man to show that the disciplined 
soldiery of our own country were fully able to cope 
with the trained troops of a foreign nation. When 
D-entlemen were about to leo;islate General Scott out 



368 Mr. C. J. IngersolVs Defence. 

of office, he must be permitted to add one consideration 
to those which had so properly been stated by the ven- 
erable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Adams), and 
it was this: That, while we were sitting here very 
coolly giving votes to legislate General Scott out of 
office, we ought not quite to forget that it was by vir- 
tue of his brave achievements we possessed the oppor- 
tunity of voting here at all. It was easy for gentlemen 
to call those ' caterpillars ' who, in the hour of peril, 
had been the ' pillars ' of the public trust. He should 
be sorry indeed that this blow should fall upon the 
man who had struck the first blow in that struggle 
through which alone this Government had been pre- 
served in being down to this liour. But it was obvious 
that neither office nor officer was in the slightest dan- 
ger." — National Intelligencer, March 30, 1S44. 

Both propositions were voted down by large ma- 
jorities. 

It may be remarked that Mr. Adams and Mr. In- 
gersoll, in a common service of six years on the same 
floor of Congress, scarcely ever before agreed on any 
subject whatever. Indeed Mr. C. J. Ingersoll was an 
object of unusual hatred with the Wliig party general- 



Reunions at Mr. IngersoWs Table. 369 

Ij. Dr. Johnson " loved a good hater," and Mr. Inger- 
soll, to do him justice, fully repaid the Whigs in kind. 
Tet he was always to the autobiographer a valuable 
friend. Their acquaintance and friendship commenced 
early in the War of 1812, when no man, in the House 
of Representatives, struck more valiantly for his coun- 
try than Mr. Ingersoll. 

During a residence of some three years in Phila- 
delphia, beginning in 1819, and always afterward, 
when on a visit to that city, Scott, perhaps never failed, 
a single Sunday, to be invited to Mr. Ingersoll's hos- 
pitable table, after the second church, where were met 
the usual guests — Judge Hopkinson, the author of 
Sail ColuTnbia^ Nicholas Biddle (two of the most ac- 
complished and amiable men in America), Joseph 
Bonaparte, James Brown, Ex-Senator and Minister to 
France, and any stranger of eminence that might be 
passing through. In all these agreeable reunions, Mr. 
Ingersoll, a good scholar and linguist, bore his part 
well — giving and receiving pleasure. 



CHAFTEE XXY. 

LETTEE ON SLAVERY TKACTS ON PEACE AND WAE MR. 

rOLK PRESIDENT. 

Scott's views on the question of negro slavery are 
Btrongly alluded to, but not fully developed, in the 
foregoing narrative. Begging the reader to forgive a 
partial repetition of the same ideas and expressions, he 
inserts his formal letter on the subject here : 

Washington, February 9, 1843. 

Dear Sir: 

I have been waiting for an evening's leisure to 
answer your letter before me, and, after an unreason- 
able delay, am at last obliged to reply in the midst of 
official occupations. 



Sentiments on Slavery. 371 

That I ever have been named in connection with 
the Presidency of the United States, has not, I can as- 
sure you,t\\e son of an ancient" neighbor and friend, 
been by any contrivance or desire of mine; and cer- 
tainly I shall never be in the field for that high office 
unless placed there hy a regular nomination. Not, 
then, being a candidate, and seeing no near prospect 
of being made one, I ought, perhaps, to decline trou- 
bling you or others with my humble opinions on great 
principles of State Rights and Federal Administration ; 
but as I cannot plead ignorance of the partiality of a 
few friends, in several parts of the Union, who may, by 
possibility, in a certain event, succeed in bringing me 
within the field from which a Whig candidate is to be 
selected, I prefer to err on the side of frankness and 
candor, rather than, by silence, to allow any stranger 
unwittingly to commit himself to my support. 

Your inquiries open the wdiole question of domes- 
tic slavery, which has, in different forms, for a number 
of years, agitated Congress and the country. 

Premising that j'ou are the first person who has 
interrogated me on the subject, I give you the basis of 
what would be ray reply in greater detail, if time allowed 
and the contingency alluded to above were less remote. 



372 Sentiments on Slavery. 

In boyhood, at William and Mary College, and in 
common with most, if not all, my companions, I be- 
came deeply impressed with the views given by Mr. 
Jeflferson, in his "Kotes on Yirginia," and by Judge 
Tucker, in the Appendix to his edition of Blackstone's 
Commentaries, in favor of a gradual emancipation of 
slaves. That Appendix I have not seen in thirty odd 
years, and, in the same period, have read scarcely any- 
thing on the subject; but my early impressions are 
fresh and unchanged. Hence, if I had had the honor 
of a seat in the Yirginia Legislature in the winter of 
1831-'2, when a bill was brought forward to carry out 
those views, I should certainly have given it my hearty 
support. 

I suppose I scarcely need say that, in my opinion, 
Congress has no color of authority, under the Constitu- 
tion, for touching the relation of master and slave with- 
in a State. 

I hold the opposite opinion in respect to the 
District of Columbia. Here, Avith the consent of the 
owners, or on the payment of "just compensation," 
Congress may legislate at its discretion. But my con- 
viction is equally strong that, unless it be step by step 
with the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland, it 



Subject Continued. 373 

would be dangerous to "both races in those States to 
touch the relation between master and slave in this 
District. 

I have from the first been of opinion that Congress 
was bound by the Constitution to receive, to refer, and 
to report upon petitions relating to domestic slavery as 
in the case of all other petitions ; but I have not failed 
to see and to regret the unavoidable irritation which 
the former have produced in the Southern States, with 
tlie consequent peril to the two colors, whereby the 
adoption of any plan of emancipation has everywhere 
among us been greatly retarded. 

I own, myself, no slave ; but never have attached 
blame to masters for not liberating their slaves — well 
knoAving that liberation, without the means of sending 
them in comfort to some position favorable to " the pur- 
suit of happiness," would, in most cases, be highly inju- 
rious to all around, as well as to the manumitted fami- 
lies themselves — unless the operation were general and 
under the auspices of prudent legislation. But I am 
persuaded that it is a high moral obligation of matters 
and slaveholding States to employ all means, not in- 
compatible witli the safety of both colors, to meliorate 
slavery even to extermination. 



374: Subject Continued. 

It is jiratifvinii" to know that general melioration 
has heen great, and is still progressive, notwithstand- 
ino; the disturhina; causes alluded to above. The more 
direct process of emancipation may, no doubt, be earlier 
commenced and quickened in some communities than 
in others. Each, I do not question, has the right to 
judge for itself, both as to time and means, and I con- 
sider interference or aid from without, except on invi- 
tation from authority witliin, to be as hurtful to the 
s\ire progress of melioration, as it may be fatal to the 
lives of vast multitudes of all ages, sexes, and colors. 
The work of liberation cannot be forced without such 
horrid results. Christian philanthropy is ever mild 
and considerate. Hence all violence ought to be depre- 
cated l)y the fi-iends of religion and humanity. Their 
persuasions cannot fail at the right time to fi*ee the 
master from the slave, and the slave from the master ; 
perhaps before the latter shall have found out and 
acknowledged that the relation between the parties 
had long been mutually prejudicial to their worldly 
. interests. 

There is no evil without, in the order of Provi- 
dence, some compensating benefit. The bleeding 
African was torn from his savage home by his fero- 



Subject Coniimied. 375 

cious neighbors, sold into slavery, and cast upon this 
continent. Here, in tlie mild South, the race has 
wonderfully multiplied, compared with anything ever 
known in barbarous life. The descendants of a few 
thousands have become many millions; and all, from 
the first, made acquainted with the arts of civiliza- 
tion, and, above all, brought under the light of the 
Gospel. 

From the promise made to Abraham, some two 
thousand years had elapsed before the advent of our 
Saviour, and the Israelites, the chosen people of God, 
were, for wise purposes, suffered to remain in bondage 
longer than Africans have been on our shore. This 
race has already experienced the resulting compen- 
sations alluded to; and, as the white missionary has 
never been able to penetrate the dark regions of Africa, " 
or to establish himself in its interior, it may be within 
the scheme of Providence that the great work of spread- 
ing the Gospel over that vast continent, with all the 
arts and comforts of civilization, is to be finally accom- 
plished by the black man restored from American 
bondage. A foothold there has already been gained 
for him, and in such a scheme centm*ies are but as 



376 Suhject Continued. 

Beconds to Him wlio moves worlds as man moves a 
tinger. 

I do but suggest the remedies and consolations 
of slavery, to inspire patience, hope, and charity on all 
sides. The mighty subject calls for the exercise of all 
man's wisdom and virtue, and these may not suffice 
without aid -from a higher source. 

It is in the foregoing manner, my dear sir, that I 
have long been in the habit, in conversation, of express- 
ing myself, all over our common country, on the ques- 
tion of negro slavery, and I must say that I have found 
but very few persons to dijtter with me, however oppo- 
site their geographical positions. 

Such are the views or opinions which you seek. 
I cannot suppress or mutilate them, although now 
liable to be more generally known. Do with them 
what you please. I neither court nor shun publicity. 
I remain, very truly, yours, 

WIN FIELD SCOTT. 
T. P. Atkinson, Esq., Danville, Virginia. 



Peace and ir^/*. ^^'^ 

Peace amd War. 

Washington, March 24, 1845. 

I have received yoiir letter of the 21st instant, 
accompanied by certain proceedings of the General 
Peace Convention. 

My participation in war, as well as endeavors on 
several occasions to preserve peace, withont sacrificing 
the honor and the interests of my country, are matters 
of public history. These antecedents, together with 
my sentiments on the abstract question oi peace and 
■war, inserted a year ago in a Peace Album, and since 
published, I learn, in several journals, might be oifered 
as a sufficient reply to your communication. 

I have always maintained the moral right to wage 
a just and necessary war, and, consequently, the wis- 
dom and humanity, as applicable to the United States, 
iu the present state of the world, of defensive prepara- 
tions. If the principal nations of the earth liable to 
come in conflict with us in our natural growth and 
just pursuits, can be induced to disarm, I should be 
happy to see the United States foUow the example. 
But without a general agreement to that effect, and a 
strong probability that it would be carried out in good 



378 Peace and War. 

faith by others, I am wholly opposed to giving up 
home preparation, and the natural and Christian right 
of self-defence. 

The published sentiments alluded to may not have 
fallen under your observation. I enclose a copy. 
I remain respectfully, 

Your most obedient servant, 

WliNFlELD SCOTT. 

J. C. Beckwith, Esq., Corresponding Secretary. 
[Written in a Peace Album.] 

Peace and War. 

If war be the natural state of savage tribes, peace 
is the first want of every civilized community. Wai 
no doubt is, under any circumstances, a great calamity ; 
yet submission to outrage would often be a greater 
calamity. Of the two parties to any war, one, at least, 
must be in the wrong — not unfrequently both. An 
error in such an issue is, on the part of chief magis- 
trates, ministers of state, and legislators having a 
voice in the question, a crime of the greatest magni- 
tude. The slaying of an individual by an individual 



Mr. Folk Fleeted President. 3T9 

is in comparative guilt, but a drop of blood. Hence 
the highest moral obligation to treat national differences 
with temper Justice, and fairness; always to see that 
the cause of war is not only just but sufficient; to be 
sure that we do not c^et our neighbor's lands, "nor 
any thing that is his ; " that we are as ready to give as 
to demand explanation, apology, indemnity; in short, 
we should especially remember, " All tlnngs whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them." This divine precept is of universal obligation : 
it is as applicable to rulers, in their transactions with 
other nations, as to private individuals in their daily 
intercourse with each other. Power is intrusted by 
-the Author of peace and lover of concord," to do 
good and to avoid evil. Such, clearly, is the revealed 

^^1^ ^^ ^''^' WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Washington, April 26, 1844. 

On the approach of the next Presidential election, 
it was agreed by all Whigs, the chances of success 
seeming favorable, to leave the field without a conven- 
tion to Mr. Clay ; but Mr. Polk was chosen and in- 
augurated March 4, 1845. 



380 Hypocrisy Weakness when Detected. 

Mr. Tyler, doubtless, like several of his successors, 
was weaker in office than Mr. Polk, whose little 
strength lay in the most odious elements of the human 
character — cunning and hypocrisy. It is true that 
these qualities, when discovered, become positive weak- 
nesses ; but they often triumph over wisdom and virtue 
before discovery. It may be added that a man of 
meaner presence is not often seen. He was, however, 
virtually, the nominee of General Jackson. 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

WAE WITH MEXIOO-GENEEAL TATLOE. 

Hostilities with Mexico, might, perhaps, have heeB 
avoided ; hut Texas lay hetween-or rather in the scale 

of war. 
• At an advanced stage of the diplomatic qiian-el, 

Brigadier-General Taylor wa« ordered, with a respect- 
abk number of regular troops, to Corpus Christi, nea. 
the Mexican frontier, as a good point of observation. 
This selection of the commander was made with the 
concurrence of the autobiographer, who, knowing h,m 
to be slow of thought, of hesitancy in speech, and un- 
used to the pen, took care, about the same time, to 
provide him, unsolicited, with a staff officer, Captam 



382 General Taylor and his Counterpart. 

(subsequently, Lieutenant-Colonel) Bliss, his exact com- 
plement, Avlio superadded modest, quiet manners, which 
qualities could not fail to win the confidence of his 
peculiar commander, and on which usefulness entirely 
depended. The whole intent was a success : the com- 
bination of the general and the chief of his staff work- 
ing like a charm. Though, perhaps, somewhat in 
advance of chronology, a little fuller sketch of one of 
the most fortunate of men, may here not be out of 
place. The autobiographer knew him well. 

General Taylor's elevation to the Presidency, the 
result of military successes, though a marvel, was not a 
curse to his country. Mr. Webster, in his strong idio- 
matic English, said of the nomination that it was " not 
Jit to be made ; " but probably he v.'ould have been 
equally dissatisfied witli any candidate other than him- 
self. 

With a good store of common sense, General Tay- 
lor's mind had not been enlarged and refi*eshed by 
reading, or much converse with the world. Rigidity 
of ideas was the consequence. The frontiers and small 
military posts had been his home. Hence he was quite 
ignorant, for his rank, and quite bigoted in his ignor- 
ance. His simplicity was childlike, and with innunier- 



Invincible in Honesty and Prejudices. 38-3 

al3le ]5rejudices — amusing and incorrigible — well suited 
to the tender age. Thus if a man, however respectable, 
chanced to wear a coat of an unusual color, or his hat 
a little on one side of the head ; — or an officer to leave 
the corner of his handkerchief dangling from an out- 
side pocket — in any such case, this critic held the 
offender to be a coxcomb — perhaps, something worse, 
whom he would not, to use his oft-repeated phrase, 
" touch with a pair of tongs." Any allusion to litera- 
ture much beyond good old Dilworth's Spelling Book, 
on the part of one wearing a sword, was evidence, with 
the same judge, of utter unfitness for heavy marchings 
and combats. In short, few men have ever had a more 
comfortable, labor-saving contempt for learning of every 
kind,* Yet this old soldier and neophyte statesman, 
had the true basis of a great character : — pure, uncor- 
rupted morals, combined with indomitable courage. 
Kind-hearted, sincere, and hospitable in a plain way, 
he had no vice but prejudice, many friends, and left 
behind him not an enemy in the world — not even in 

* Marlborough, one of the greatest generals of any age, and the first 
diplomat and courtier of his own, was also without science and literature — 
knowing nothing of history except the little he picked up at the acting of 
some of Shakspeare's dramas. 



384 Scott Thought of for the War. 

the autobiograplier, wliom, in the blindness of liis great 
weakness, he — after being named for the Presidency — 
had seriously wronged. 

Ought this, charitably, to be supposed an uncon- 
scious error, or placed to a difi'erent account ? 

" To keep the proud thy friend, see that thou do him not a service : 

For, behold, he will hate thee for his debt." 

Prov. PMlosophif. 

As early as May, 1846, when it was known that the 
Mexicans had assumed a threatening attitude on the 
Eio Grande, an inclination to send Scott to that fron- 
tier was intimated. lie replied, 1. That it was harsh 
and unusual for a senior, without reenforcements, to 
supersede a meritorious junior; 2, That he doubted 
whether that was the right season, or the Rio Grande 
the right basis for offensive operations against Mexi- 
co ; and suggested the plan of conquering a peace 
which he ultimately executed. 

Leading Democrats took alarm at the appointment 
of a Whig to so high a trust — fearing, as they did him 
the honor to say — his " knack at success," and caused 
Mr. Polk to doubt and reject liis views. Whereupon 
Scott intimated that witliout the approval of his plan 
of campaign, and the steady confidence and support 



Laid Aside and Maligned. 385 

of tlie Government, lie would not be able to conduct 
anj expedition to advantage ; for soldiers bad a far 
greater dread of a fire upon the rear, tbau of the most 
formidable enemy in front. The President at once 
caused liim to be relieved from tbe proposed mission. 

At this period, Scott usually — as always in trou- 
blous times — spent from fifteen to eighteen hours a 
day in his oflace, happened, on being called upon by 
the Secretary of "War to be found a'bsent. In explan- 
ation, Scott hurriedly wrote a note to say that he was 
back in the office, having only stepped out, for the mo- 
ment, to take — regular meals being out of the question 
— " a hasty plate of soup." This private note being 
maliciously thrown into party newspapers, all the wit- 
lings — forgetting their own hasty pudding, fastened 
upon it, with much glee, and also tried their clumsy 
wit on the phrase " conquer a peace ; " but not after 
the early fact, as also on the " fire upon the rear ; " but 
never aft^7' the fire of the enemy and that of the 
Administration, on front and rear, had been silenced 
by the campaign of 1847. 

These were no trivialities in their day ; for, by the 

aid of party madness and malice they came very near 

destroying Scott's usefulness in the Mexican war. 
17 



'^>8G Honors — Swoi'ds — Medals. 

Taylor's early successes on this side of the Kio 
Grande, so handsomely reported by Bliss, won him 
great favor -with the country. A resolution giving him 
the thanks of Congress, and a sword was promptly in- 
troduced. Scott hastened to address a circular (j)rivate) 
note to a dozen members of the two Houses of Congress 
— including the Kentucky Senators, and Mr. Jefferson 
Davis — arguing that the gold medal ought to be sub- 
stituted for the sword — being the higher honor, and 
eminently Taylor's due. The suggestion was adopted, 
and further to show that Scott did not neglect the hero 
of the Rio Grande, he annexes the following report : 



" Hkadquarters of the Army, ) 
Washington, July 25, 1846. \ 

" Hon. W. L. Maecy, Secretary of War : 

{Endorsed hy Major-General Scott, on the Resohju- 
tion of Congress voting a medal to Major-General 
Taylor, which Resolution the Secretary had referred 
to General Scott.'] 

" As medals are among the surest monuments of 
history, as well as muniments of individual distinction, 



Numismatics. 387 

tliere should be given to them, besides intrinsic value 
and durability of material the utmost grace of design, 
with the highest finish in mechanical execution. All 
this is necessary to give the greater or adventitious 
value ; as in the present instance, the medal is to be, 
at once, an historical record and a reward of distin- 
guished merit. The credit of the donor thus becomes 
even more than that of the receiver interested in ob- 
taining a perfect specimen in the fine arts. 

" The within resolution prescribes gold as the mate- 
rial of the medal. The general form (circular) may be 
considered as equally settled bj our own practice, and 
that of most nations, ancient and modern. There is, 
however, some little diversity in diameter and thickness 
in the medals heretofore ordered by Congress, at diflfer- 
ent periods, as may be seen in the cabinets of the War 
and ISTavy Departments, Diversity in dimensions is 
even greater in other countries, 

" The specific character of the medal is shown by 
its two faces, or the face and the reverse. The within 
resolution directs ' appropriate devices and inscriptions 
thereon.' 

" For the face^ a bust likeness is needed, to give, 
with the name and the rank of the donee, indimdual' 



388 American Medals — Distribution, 

ity. To obtain tlie likeness, a first-rate miniature 
painter should, of course, be employed. 

"The reverse receives the device, appropriate to 
the events commemorated. To obtain this, it is sug- 
gested that the resolutions and despatches, belonging 
to the subject, be transmitted to a master in the art of 
design — say Professor Weir, at West Point — for a 
drawing — including, if practicable, this inscription : 

PALO ALTO; 

RESACA DE LA PALMA: 

May 8 and 9, 1846. 

" A third artist — all to he well paid — is next to l)e 
employed — a die sinker. The mint of the United 
States will do the coinage. 

" Copies, in cheaper metal, of all our gold medals, 
should be given to the libraries of the Federal and 
State Governments, to those of colleges, etc. 

" The medals voted by the Revolutionary Con- 
gress were executed — designs and dies — under the 
superintendence of Mr. Jeftei'son, in Paris, about the 
year 1Y86. Those struck in honor of victories, in our 



i 



Panic among Whig Leaders. 389 

war of 1812, were all— at least so far as it respected 
the land service — done at home, and not one of them 
presented, I think, earlier than the end of Mr. Mon- 
roe's Administration (1825). The delay principally 
resulted from the want of good die sinkers. There 
was only one of mediocre merit (and he a foreigner) 
found for the army. What the state of this art may 
now be in the United States I know not. But I beg 
leave again to suggest that the honor of the country 
requires that medals, voted by Congress, should always 
exhibit the arts, involved, in their highest state of per- 
fection wherever found; for letters, science, and the 
fine arts constitute but one republic, embracing the 
world. So thought our early Government, and Mr. 
Jefferson — a distinguished member of that general 
republic. 

" All which is respectfully submitted to the Secre- 
tary of War." 

But before his written solicitude about the medal — 
in May — the day on which the news of Taylor's first 
victories (two) arrived— a number of leading Whigs 
(not including Mr. Clay or Mr. Webster) in a panic, 
about the soup, called upon the autobiographer to in- 



;'.;»•) Taijlor t/teir Pi'esidential Candidate. 

(juire whether Taylor was a Whig or not, and whether 
lie might not advantageously be Scott's substitute as 
their next Presidential candidate? More amused than 
offended at their cowardice and candor, Scott gave 
emphatically, all the points in the foregoing sketch 
of the then rising general, omitting (it is believed) any 
allusion to his lack of general information, and added, 
as a striking proof of his honesty this anecdote : 

Early in the times of Jacksonism, in Kentucky, the 
demagogues broke the Constitution, and the supreme 
judges of the State, together ; set up a new supreme 
court of their own, and a rag bank without a dollar in 
specie — literally to " emit bills of credit *' in violation of 
the Constitution of the United States. Money (bills of 
credit) being superabundant, a wild spirit of speculation 
became general running into madness, soon followed 
by coextensive bankruptcy and ruin. Colonel Zachary 
Taylor chanced to visit Louisville (his home) in the 
height of the si)eculation ; but though not infected 
himself, he was induced to endorse a heavy obligation 
of a friend, which, of course, in due time fell upon 
liiiu. lie resolutely refused to take any relief from the 
stop-laws of the same demagogues, or to pay in their 
rag currency, and although a dear lover of money, 



Taylor Forced to Advance. 391 

persistently paid bis endorsement in specie. In con- 
tinuation, Scott stated that being in Louisville, in tbe 
command of tbe Western Department of tbe army, be 
gave tbe colonel tbe sbort leave of absence tbat brougbt 
bim tbere witb tbe beavy bags wbicb finally freed bim 
from debt. Tbe parting witb tbe casb agonized bim 
not a little, but soon be recovered, and tbe next mo- 
ment felt bappy in bis donble-proof integrity. 

And bad Scott no trial of bis own ? Tbe statement, 
just given fixed Taylor as tbe next Wbig candidate 
for tbe Presidency; but Scott, witbout murmur or 
petulance, did not fail to make bis backsliding Wbig 
friends feel tbeir inferiority. ISTever bad be been 
better self-poised, and to bis last bour be cannot fail 
to point to this period of obloquy on tbe part of 
enemies and desertion of friends, as by far tbe most 
beroic of bis life. Happily by tbe ruling of Provi- 
dence, tbat, and otber defeats in politics, bave proved 
to bim blessings in disguise. Wbetber, looking to sub- 
sequent events, tbe country bas equally profited by Ibe 
results, be bas tbe vanity to doubt. 

By extraordinary importunities from Washington, 
one object being to decry Scott's plea for adequate 
preparation, and bis doubts as to tbe line of opera- 



392 Taken Monterey. 

tious from the Rio Grande — aided by a letter from 
tliat man of rare abilities and every moral excellence — 
John J. Crittenden — written at Scott's desk, and which 
he read with a dissenting smile — Taylor was told to 
say no more of reenforcements and means of transpor- 
tation ; but, added Crittenden — " the public is impa- 
tient ; take foot in hand and off for the Halls of Monte- 
zuma." Thus stimulated, Taylor, against his own 
judgment, marched under the greatest difficulties upon 
the little village of Monterey, which he captured {cui 
bono ?) and became j^Zawfe^ — as it was impracticable 
— no matter with what force, to reach any vital part 
of Mexico by that route. Accordingly, Taylor re- 
mained fast at Monterey and its neighborhood, with 
varying numbers, down to the peace. 

Reliable information reached Washington, almost 
daily (see Taylor's own Reports, Ex. Doc. No. 60, 
H. of R., 30th Con., 1st Session), that the wild volun- 
teers as soon as beyond the Rio Grande, committed, 
with impunity, all sorts of atrocities on the persons and 
property of Mexicans, and that one of the former, from 
a concealed position, had even shot a Mexican as he 
marched out of Montere}'^, under the capitulation.* 

* Thi3 case was one reported by Taylor, who asked for advice. And 



Disorders — Martial Law Suggested. 393 

There was no legal punishment for any of those 
offences, for by the strange omission of Congress, 
American troops take with them beyond the limits of 
their own country, no law but the Constitution of the 
United States, and the rules and articles of war. 
These do not provide any court for the trial or punish- 
ment of murder, rape, theft, &c., &c. — no matter by 
whom, or on whom committed. 

To suppress these disgraceful acts abroad, the auto- 
biographer drew up an elaborate paper, in the form of 
an order — called, his martial law m^der — to be issued 
and enforced in Mexico, until Congress could be stimu- 
lated to legislate on the subject. On handing this 
paper to the Secretary of War (Mr. Marcy) for his ap- 
proval, a startle at the title was the only comment he 
then, or ever made on the subject. It was soon silently 
returned, as too explosive for safe handling. A little 
later the Attorney-General called (at whose instance 
can only be guessed) and asked for a copy, and the law 
officer of the Government whose business it is to speak 

what advice does the reader suppose the Secretary to have given ? To 
execute the brute under martial law ? No ! Taylor was advised to send 
the monster home — that is, to reward him with a discharge ! See the 
same document. (P. 369.) I had left Washington two days earlier. 
17* 



394 Proposition not Accepted. 

on all such matters, was stricken with legal dumbness. 
All the authorities were evidently alarmed at the prop- 
osition to estahlish martial law, even in a foreign 
country, occupied "by American troops. Hence they 
touched the subject as daintily as a " terrier mumbles a 
hedgehog." I therefore was left in my o'^ti darkness 
on the subject. I sent the paper, however, to General 
Taylor, telling him frankly, that it had been seen by at 
least two members of the cabinet, but that it was not 
approved or disapproved by either, and for that reason 
it was not enjoined upon him, but left to his otvn re 
sponsibility to adopt it as his order or not, as he might 
tliink proper. 

It is understood that Taylor on casting his eye 
slightly over the paper, and perceiving it contained 
what he termed, " a learned commentary on the mili- 
tary code," threw it aside — saying, " It is another of 
Scotfs Lessons " or " Novels " — as his tactics and mili- 
tary institutes had been previously called by officers of a 
certain age (not West Point graduates) who deemed it 
a great hardship, late in life, to be obliged, for the first 
time, to study the simplest elements of their profession. 

This paper will be inserted entire, in a subsequent 
part of this narrative : 1. On account of its history 



Martial Laio Continued. 395 

just given; 2. Because, without it, I could not have 
maintained the discipline and honor of the army, or 
have reached the capital of Mexico. 

The martial law order was not published until the 
autobiographer was fairly out of the United States-at 
Tampico. It was successively republished at Yera 
Cruz, Puebla, and the capital, so that it might be 
familiarly known to every man in the army, and in a 
translation, it was also extensively circulated among 
the people of the country. Under it, all offenders, 
Americans and Mexicans, were alike punished-with 
death for murder or rape, and for other crimes propor- 
tionally. It will be seen that the order did not in the 
least interfere with the administration of justice between 
Mexican and Mexican, by the ordinary courts of the 
country. It only provided a special American tribunal 
for any case to which an American might be a party. 
And further, it should be observed, that military com- 
missions in applying penalties to convicted felons, were 
limited to " known punishments, in like cases, in some 
of the States of the United States "-the latter, as^ 
such, being without a common law, or a common crimi- 
nal code. 

Notwithstanding the cowardice of certain high func- 



396 Martial Law Adopted in Mexico. 

tionaries on the subject, there lias been no pursuit of 
the author. On the contrary, it has been admitted by 
all that the order worked like a charm ; that it con- 
ciliated Mexicans ; intimidated the vicious of the 
several races, and being executed with impartial rigor, 
gave the highest moral deportment and discipline ever 
known in an invading arui3\ 



CHAPTER XXYII. 

GCOTT OEDEKED TO MEXICO VISITS CAMAEGO — EEEM- 

BAEKS FOE VEEA CEUZ. 

Seveeal times in the summer and autumn of 1846, 
I repeated to the War Department my desire to be 
ordered to Mexico at the head of a competent force. 
At length my request was acceded to. 

War Department, Washington, ) 
November 23, 1846. \ 

Sie: 

The President, several days since, communicated 
in person to you his orders to repair to Mexico, to take 
the command of the forces there assembled, and par- 
ticularly to organize and set on foot an expedition to 
operate on the Gulf coast, if, on arriving at the theatre 
of action, you shall deem it to be practicable. It is not 



398 Scott Ordered to Mexico. 

proposed to control ye»ur operations by definite and 
positive instructions, but you are left to prosecute them 
as your judg-ineiit, under a full view of all the circum- 
stances, shall dictate. The work is before you, and the 
means provided, or to be provided, for accomplishing 
it, are committed to you, in the full confidence that you 
will use them to the best advantage. 

The objects which it is desirable to obtain have 
been indicated, and it is hoped that you will have the 
requisite force to accomplish them. 

Of this you must be the judge, when preparations 
are made, and the time for action arrived. 
Yery respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

\V. L. MARCY, 

Secretary of War. 
General Winfield Scott, 

From an early day — it is believed, the very begin- 
ning — the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. ^y alter, and 
Mr. Secretary Marcy, were in favor of giving me the 
substantial direction of tlie war on land — each havine; 
often done me the honor to express his fullest confi- 
dence in my zeal and capacity for the occasion. 



Interviews of the President. 399 

For a week prior to Mr. Marcj's letter, President 
Polk sent for me once or twice daily. In tliese inter- 
views every expression of kindness and coniidence was 
lavislied upon me. Sncli was the warmth and emphasis 
of hia professions, that he fully won my confidence. I 
gave him a cordial reciprocation of my personal sym- 
pathy and regard — being again and again assured that 
the country would" be bankrupted and dishonored unless 
the war could be made plainly to march toward a suc- 
cessful conclusion, and that I only could give to it the 
faecessary impetus and direction. ISTot to have been 
deceived by such protestations, would have been, in my 
judgment, unmanly suspicion and a crime. Accord- 
ingly, though oppressed with the labors of military 
preparation, I made time to write a circular to the 
leading Whigs in Congress (a few days before their 
meeting) to say how handsomely I had been treated by 
the President and Secretary of "War — begging that the 
new regiments might be authorized with the least pos- 
sible delay, &c.,.&c. 

In the very act of embarking, at I^ew Orleans, on 
the expedition, a stranger, Mr. Hodge of that city 
(since Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and a resi- 
dent of Washington), saw me half a minute, to com- 



400 Attempt to Place Another over Him. 

municate a letter from mj dear friend — Alexander 
Barrow — then a senator from Louisiana — saying that 
the President had asked for the grade of lieutenant- 
general, in order to place Senator Benton over me in 
the Army of Mexico. I begged that Mr. Barrow might 
be thanked for his kindness, but added that he must be 
mistaken about Mr. Benton ; for if the rank were 
asked for, it could only — remembering Mr. Polk's as- 
surances of support and rewards— be intended for me 
on the report of my first success, and I continued, a 
short time longer, to carry on, besides the ojjicial^ a 
.S(?»?*-official correspondence, with the War Department, 
for the President, as before. 

A grosser abuse of human confidence is nowhere 
recorded. 

Mr. Polk's mode of viewing the case seems to have 
been this : " Scott is a "Whig ; therefore the Democracy 
is not bound to observe good faith with him. Scott is 
a Whig ; therefore, his successes may be turned to the 
prejudice of the Democratic party. We must, how- 
ever, profit by his military experience, and, if successful, 
by the force of patronage and other helps, contrive to 
crown Benton with the victory, and thus triumph botli 
in tlie field and at the polls." Tliis bungling treachery 



The Attein^t Dejtaied. 401 

was planned during the precise period of my very 
friendly interviews with Mr. Polk ! It soon became 
fully developed, and, in all essentials, acknowledged 
before Congress. The lieutenant-generalcy was, how- 
ever, rejected, when Mr. Polk taxed his supporters to 
the utmost to procure for him authority to place a 
junior Major-General (Benton) over a senior (Scott), 
and was again ignominiously defeated — aided by the 
manly spirit of the same small number of Democrats. 

This vile intrigue so disgusted Congress, and its 
defeat so depressed the zeal and influence of the Ad- 
ministration, that instead of authorizing the additional 
forces needed for the war at once, the augmentation 
was delayed till near the end of the session. This was 
the first fruit of bad faith or political blindness ; for, in 
war, time is always a great element of success — some- 
times the first. 

I reached the Brazos San lago, near the mouth of the 
Rio Grande, in Christmas week, and proceeded up that 
river to Camargo, which place or vicinage I had ap- 
pointed for a meeting with Major-General Taylor by a 
communication that preceded me four days ; but, by 
the gross neglect of the ofiicer who bore it, it lost three 
of those days at that place. In the mean time Taylor 



4o2 Scott at Point Isabel, etc. 

made a strange digression, with a part of liis troops, 
toward Tampico — for it was fully as difficult for an 
army to penetrate Mexico from that point, as from 
Monterey. But in either case, why divide his forces ? 

A fatality attended my communication to Taylor. 
It was most confidential, and so marked, outside and 
in — containing a sketch of my views and intentions. 
Yet at the volunteer headquarters, Monterey, it was 
opened, freely read and discussed by numbers — all not 
in a condition to be wise or discreet. The package 
being remade, it was next forwarded after Taylor by a 
very young officer with a few men, who was inveigled 
into Yilla Gran and slain ; his despatches taken, and 
received by Santa Anna before Taylor saw the duplicate. 

The appointed meeting with Taylor, for harmoniz- 
ing operations with him, after full discussion — Shaving 
failed, by reason of his digression toward Tampico, and 
the blunders resulting in the loss of the despatches — 
was a great disappointment to me. In them, I had 
said, that he should have his choice of the two armies, 
that is, either remain as the immediate commander in 
Northern Mexico, or accompany me in the command 
of a division, to the capital, with every assurance, in 
either case, of confidence and support. 



Visits Gamargo — Fails to Meet Taylor. 403 

I had now, without the benefit of the consultation I 
had sought, to detach from the army of the Kio Grande 
such regular troops as I deemed indispensable to lead 
the heavier masses of volunteers and other green regi- 
ments, promised for the descent on Yera Cruz and the 
conquest of the capital — leaving Taylor a suihcient 
defensive force to maintain the false position at Mon- 
terey, and discretion to contract his line to the Rio 
Grande, with the same means of defence. This con- 
traction, with a view to economize men and money, I 
certainly should have ordered at once, if Taylor had 
been present to support me ; but as many of the wise- 
acres at Washington still preferred the short imprac- 
ticable cut to " the Halls of Montezuma," ma Monterey 
and San Luis Potosi — a blunder, concurred in at one 
time by Taylor; — and as I had then discovered that 
my friend Barrow's message by Mr. Hodge was well 
founded — that is, instead of a friend in the President, 
I had, in him, an enemy more to be dreaded than Santa 
Anna and all his hosts — I left the basis of operations 
or the line of defence in that quarter, in statu quo, but 
only with troops sufficient for the latter purj^ose. 

Both Taylor and the Secretary of War had vacil- 
lated on all those points. Each for a time had inclined 



4 >4 Different Bases of Operations. 

to a direct advance from the Eio Grande. Eacli liad 
glanced at the Vera Cruz basis, an idea always mine ; 
each had favored the defensive. line of Monterey or the 
Sierra Madre ; and Taylor, a little later, seemed to 
tavor standing on the defensive on the hanks of the liio 
Grande, which he had left against his judgment. (See 
Executive Doc. No. 56.) 

The Mexicans had never any apprehension of an 
effective invasion from that quarter or from Tampico. 
In respect to either of these routes, they might have 
expressed what the Russians felt when Napoleon 
marched upon Moscow : " Come unto us with few, 
and we will overwhelm you ; come unto us with many, 
and you shall overwhelm yourselves." As to holding 
the line of the Sierra Madre or other line of defence, 
and standing fast, that would have been the worst possi- 
ble state of things — " a little war," or " a war like a 
peace " — a perpetual condition ; for Santa Anna would 
have regarded it as a mere scratch on the surface. 

To compel a people, singularly obstinate, to sue for 
peace, it is absolutely necessary, as the sequel in this 
case showed, to strike, effectively, at the vitals of the 
nation. 

The order fur the troops to descend from Monterey 



Taylor's Barbacue Speec?i. 405 

to tlie sea-coast, was issued at Camargo, Jau. 3, 1847, 
and I immediately returned to the Brazos San Jago. 

It was this order, that, at first, caused the gentle 
regrets of Taylor, but soon began to sour his mind in 
proportion as he became more and more prominent as a 
candidate for the Presidency. Thus, after the peace, 
when coming North, and running the gantlet of uni- 
versal cheers and praise, the ovation unhinged his 
mind, when, in replying to a flattering address, at a 
Pascagoula barbecue, he made this extraordinary 
speech : 

" You have alluded to my being stripped of my 
troops on the Rio Grande ; and my being left, as it 
might seem, at the mercy of the enemy, just before the 
battle of Buena Yista, renders it proper, probably, that 
I should make a few remarks in relation to that matter. 
I received at Yictoria, Mobile on my march to Tampico 
— a movement which I had advised the War Depart- 
ment I should make for certain reasons — an order from 
the General-in-Chief of the Army (Scott) stripping me 
of the greater part of my command, and particularly 
of regular troops and volunteers well instructed. The 
order was received by me with much surprise, and, I 
must confess, produced the strongest feelings of regret, 



400 Analijsls of the Speech. 

mortification and disappointment, as I knew that Santa 
Anna was in striMng distance of my I'lTies, with an 
army of 25,000 — jjvobahly the best anointed men ever 
collected in Mexico^ 

Tlie liarniless errors, botli of fact and opinion, of a 
good man, onght to be treated as a nurse treats a cliild 
— a little sick and a little spoiled — gently ; but if bis 
errors, springing fi-ora vanity and self-love, wound 
anotlier, tlie injury is tlie deeper in proportion to tbe 
standing of tbe autbor, and, tberefore, are to be dealt 
witb unsparingly. 

1. Elated witb flattery, our bero 

1^ 



irew vam ; 



Fought all his battles o'er again ; 
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain." 

He calls tbe army of tbe Rio Grande "my troops ! " 

2. He knew that Santa Anna, with an overwhelm- 
ing force, was in stt'ilcing distance. 

If so, be not only witbbeld tbe fact from tbe War 
Department and tbe General-in-Cbief, but — I Mrite it 
in sorrow — be actually, up to tbe last moment, gave 
tbe contrary assurance to bolb ! 

Tbe proof: — some alarm, in tront, having taken 



Refutation. ^'^'^ 

him from Monterey to Saltillo, he writes thence, 
February 4: "I fomid everything quiet in our front." 

"Indeed it is reported that a large portion of the 
troops, at San Luis, have taken the direction of Yera 
Cruz." Ex. Document, 56. (Santa Anna had,- some 
time before, received the captured despatches.) Three 
days later, Taylor wrote again (to me) at the Brazos 
San Jago, to the like effect, and the same day, 
February T, Document 56, p. 300, to the War Depart- 
ment: "There is understood to be no considerable 
force in our front, nor is it likely that any serious 
demonstration will be made in this direction. The 
frequent alarms" (in Worth's and Wood's camps)- 
always frequent in Worth's-" since the middle of 
December, seem to have been without foundation." 
Both of these letters were written at Agua Nueva, 
some eighteen miles in advance of Saltillo-his forces 
being a good deal scattered, notwithstanding my ad- 
monition, in concurrence with the War Department, 
to hold himself, while standing on the defensive, in a 
concentrated coil. One letter more of the same tenor, 
written (February 14), nine days before the battle of 



408 Refutation Continued. 

Buena Yista, wliich reached the Brazos, when I was 
many days at sea, bent on conquest. In this letter — 
same Document, 5G, p. 308 — Taylor, at Agua Nueva, 
says : " Everything is quiet in and about Saltillo." 



" Up 'to the 26th of January, the Mexican Congress 
had done nothing to supply the wants of the anny, 
which had received nothing for January, and had but 
half the necessary funds for December. Kumors reach 
our camp, from time to time, of the projected advance 
of a Mexican force upon this position ; but I think 
such a movement improbable ! " 

Those are sad self-contradictions ! But are tlie un- 
charitable beyond the pale of Christian charity ? Cer- 
tainly not. Bliss wrote the despatches, about which 
the general knew but little, and remembered less ; and 
not Bliss, but vanity, dictated the barbecue speech in 
question. 

3. He had heen strijpped, etc. — left at the mercy of 
the enemy! 

Indeed ! but the tacts : I left, under him, a small 
fraction less than seven thousand men, with a reason- 
able portion of regulars, including batteries of Held 



Refutation Continued. 409 

artillery— and other regiments soon expected, Math 
advice to stand concentrated behind the stone walls 
of Monterey, or to consider himself at liberty to take 
up the impregnable line of the Rio Grande. The 
defence of Texas was now the main purpose of this 
army — it having been shown that even with his whole 
force he could make no eifective impression on Mexico 
from that quarter. With this preface, my very suffi- 
cient defence shall again be quoted from reports under 
General Taylor's own signature. 

After the detached troops had reached the seaboard 
lie writes, from Monterey, January 27, 1847 (Ex. Doc. 
No. 56, p. 292), " the force with which I am left, in 
this quarter, though greatly deficient in regular troops, 
will, doubtless, enable me to hold the positions now 
occupied." Nothing more had been enjoined, nor was 
expected, without large reenforcements,.and^6'^6^r«i{ro/i 
had not been previously attempted, nor was attempted, 
the following summer, when his numbers again became 
formidable, although he solicited the War Department 
for reenforcements (in his letter of February 14, before 
quoted), and says he is " ui'ging forward supplies ; for, 
if joined by a sufficient force of new regiments, I wish 

to be able to take an}'^ opportunity that may offer to 
18 



410 Taylor Changes Views. 

make a diversion in favor of Major-Geiieral Scott's 
operations." (All have heard of a pavement of good 
intentions !) After awliile he got the regiments (and 
kept them from me), making his numbers eight thou- 
sand effectives — I being in Puebla at the time, with 
rather less than fitly-five hundred — in the heart of the 
enemy's country — cut loose (by the want of numbers) 
from the coast, and only with one other small detach- 
ment, left at Jalapa. General Taylor now quite at his 
ease, writes coolly and leisurely to the War Depart- 
ment from Monterey, June IG : " In my communica- 
tion of May 28 (Ex. Doc. 56, p. 387), I liad reason to' 
present my views in relation to operations against San 
Luis Potosi, at least in regard to the minimum force 
(six thousand or eight thousand) with which I thought 
they could be undertaken. I shall prepare the force 
under my orders for service in that direction, should it 
be found expedient and practicable thus to operate ; 
but [!] I may be permitted to question the utility of 
moving, at a very heavy expense over an extremely 
long line and having no communication with the nuiin 
column operating from Yera Cniz [!]. If I were called 
upon to make a suggestion on the general subject of 
operations against Mexico, it would certainly be to 



Mexicans at the Battle of Buena Vista. 411 

hold, Id this quarter [Monterey] a defensive line, and 
throw all the remaining troops into the other column ! ! " 
Then why the clamor about being " stripped ? " why 
his clamor for reenforcements by which Brigadier- 
General Cadwallader and three regiments were di- 
verted from me ? why not attempt a feint toward San 
Luis Potosi, even if the advance had been forced to 
stop at a fourth or a fifth of the distance; and, above 
all — why detain so long the reenforcements of Cad- 
wallader's and other brigades I so much needed!! A 
farther delay was incurred waiting for the Secretary's 
concurrence, dated July 15, and, finally, most of those 
reenforcements came to me long after tlie war was 
finished, and the dictated or conquered peace, was 
actually in preparation for signature. And thus my 
rivals and enemies were, at a late day, forced to 
acknowledge, practically, the justness of my early 
plans, views, and predictions ! 

4. One more remark on a point in the same barba- 
cue speech: Santa Anna's twenty-five thousand well 
anointed army at Buena Yista. 

It is true that Santa Anna in summoning Taylor to 
surrender, gives, to intimidate (a hopeless endeavor), 
his strength at twenty-five thousand ; but four days 



412 Concentration at Monterey Better. 

before the battle of Pmena Yista the Mexican othcial 
return (»f liis forces, dated at Encarnacion, puts down 
liis total numbers at fourteen thousand and forty-eight, 
all told, including sick and lame (more than two thou- 
sand) and the remainder, half famished with tliirst and 
hunger. ' General Taylor, too, giving his reasons for 
not concentrating his army at Monterey, as he was ad- 
vised to do — preferring the advanced position of Agua 
Xueva, says it was in order "to fight the Mexican 
general, immediately after he had crossed the desert 
country [about one hundred and fifty miles in extent] 
■\rhich lay just in my front, and before he could have 
time to refresh and recruit his army." This seems not 
to be bad reasoning ; but suppose the Americans had 
been concentrated within the strong walls of Monterey ; 
— the repulse of the enemy would have been more 
certain and more crippling, with less loss on our part, 
beside saving the battle of Buena Vista, and by delay- 
ing Santa Anna, the battle of Cerro Gordo, and hasten- 
ing the capture of " the Halls of Montezuma." The 
victory of Buena Vista, was, no doubt, glorious in it- 
self, and resounded as such all over America and 
Europe ; but, as has been said of the barren capitula- 
tion of Monterey — end hono f It did not advance the 



Emhm-caiion-Bmdezvom at Lobos. «3 

campaign an in.l,, nor quicken a treaty of peace an 
honr, as the Mexicans nniversally regarded it as a n.ere 

border aifair. 

At the Brazos San Jago, I had to wait for the 
descent of the troops from Monterey, and also for the 
means of transportation to Yera Crnz. The general 
embarkation was thus nnavoidably delayed till about 
February 15. At New Orleans I fortunately heard 
from old shipmasters that tolerable intermediate an- 
chorage might be found in the terrible ^r^rs, be- 
hind the Lobos Islands-a group a third of the dis- 
tance from Tampico toward Yera Cruz. Accordingly, 
I appointed that group as the general rendezvous 
for all the troop and supply ships of the expedition 
-many of them being still due from New Orleans 
and ports farther North. 

Here, at the distance of some one hundred and 
twenty miles from Yera Cruz, I lay a few days with 
the van of the expedition, till the greater part of the 
troops and maierid of war expected had come up 
with me. Next we sailed a little past Yera Cruz and 
came to anchor, March 7, at Anton Lizardo, to take 
time for choosing, after reconnoissance, the best point 
of descent, to launch om- boats and then to seize the 



414 Anchm's near Vera Cruz. 

lirst I'avorable state of the surf for debarkation — tliere 
being no barl)or at or near tlie city. Ignorant of 
President Santa Anna's desperate march over tlie 
desert, npon Major-General Taylor, we did not doubt 
meeting at our landing the most formidable struggle 
of the Mar, No precaution therefore was neglected. 



CHAPTEE XXYIII. 

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ AND THE CASTLE OF 
SAN JUAN DE ULLOA. 

Successful as was every prediction, plan, siege, 
battle, and skirmish of mine in the Mexican war, 1 
have here paused many weeks to overcome the repug- 
nance I feel to an entrance on the narrative of the 
campaign it was my fortune — I had almost said — mis- 
fortune — to conduct, with half means, beginning at 
Yera Cruz, March 9, and terminating in the capital 
of the country, September 14, 1847, six months and 
five days. This feeling is occasioned by the livel}' 
recollection of: 1. The perfidy of Mr. Polk; 2. The 
senseless and ungrateful clamor of Taylor, which, like 
his other prejudices, abided with him to the end; 



410 Enumeration of Disgusts. 

3. The iiiachinations of an ex-aide-de-camp — who owed 
his pu1)lic status mainly to my helping hand; a vain 
man, of weak principles, and most inordinate ambition. 
The cliano;e commenced on lcarnini>: that I had fallen 
under the ban at Washington ; 4. The machinations 
of a Tennessee major-general, the special friend and 
partisan (f Mr. Polk;— an anomaly, — without the 
least malignity in his nature — amiable, and possessed 
of some acuteness, but the only person I have ever 
known who was wholly indifferent in the choice be- 
tween truth and falsehood, honest}' and dishonesty ; — 
ever as ready to attain an end by the one as the other, 
and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total 
sacrifice of moral character. Procuring the nomination 
of Mr. Polk for the Presidency, he justly considered 
his greatest triumph in tliat way. These conspirators 
— for they soon coalesced — were joined by like charac- 
ters — the first in time and malignity, a smart captain 
of artillery, whom they got brevetted, on brevet, more 
for the smoke of his guns than their shots, and to whom 
Mr. Polk, near the end of his term, gave the substan- 
tial reward of colonel and inspector-general, — an office 
that happened to fall vacant just then. " The ox 
knoweth His owner, and the ass his master's crib." 



V-J^jGa^ 



r «^^/> 



(J 



Subject Continued. 41Y 

And alas, poor human nature ! Even tlie brave Colonel 
Riley, the hero of Contreras (for which he was made a 
brigadier afterward), got the brevet of major-general 
and the command in California, by yielding to the 
same weakness. (See his testimony in the Pillow in- 
vestigation.) These appointments proved an estate to 
Riley. The certainty of such fat benefits, freely prom- 
ised by the consj^irators, called into activity the sordid 
passions of other bribe-worthy officers. Hence the 
party of miscreants became quite respectable in num- 
bers after the conquest. Those were not the only dis- 
gusts. The master outrage soon followed. 

The offences of the two anonymous generals be- 
coming a little too prononce, I arrested both, and asked 
that a court might be ordered by the President for 
their trial. A court was ordered. I was relieved in 
the connnand, and the wronged and the wrong-doers, 
with stern impartiality ! placed before the tribunal ! ! 
If I had lost the campaign it would have been difficult 
to heap upon me greater vexations and mortification. 

May I add, that while I was before the court ap- 
pointed by President Jackson, at Frederick, Maryland, 
Santa Anna passed by, and paid me, though I did not 
see him, an extravagant com])liment? When he heard 
IS* 



418 Bad Legislation — Injured Discijjllne. 

ill exile, tliat I vras l)etbre ti court at Mexico, he said to 
an American : " I tliank President Polk — I am re- 
venged ! " 

And why refer the appointment -of a court to Wash- 
ington ? In 1830, Adjutant-General P. Jones was, on 
some slight occasion, arrested by the General-in-Chief, 
Macomb. The former had many friends in Congress, 
who ran a bill through the two Houses enacting that, 
when a commanding general arrests an officer or be- 
comes the prosecutor of one, the court for the trial of 
the {-ase shall be appointed by the President, etc. Tliis 
provision being general, has caused a rent in tlie 
Administration of justice in the army, and ought to 
have been entitled An Act to crijyple generals command- 
ing distant exj)editions, and to imhinge the discipline 
(subordination) of armies. Repeal is the only cure; 
but this error, it is feared, like universal sufirage, is a 
bourn from which there is no return. That it placed* 
me, with such a President and such soldier demagogues, 
between the upper and nether millstones, must be per- 
ceived by all readers ! 

March 9 — the precise day when I had been thirty 
years a general officer — the sun dawned propitiously on 
the expedition. There was but little surf on the beach 



Landing Effected. 419 

— a necessary condition — as we liad to effect a landing 
from the open sea. Every detail, providing for all 
contingencies, liad been discussed and arranged with 
my staff, and published in orders. The whole jEleet of 
transports — some eighty vessels, in the presence of 
many foreign ships of war, stood np the coast, flanked 
by two naval steamers and five gunboats to cover the 
movement. Passing through them in the large pro- 
peller, the Massachusetts, the shouts and cheers from 
every deck gave me assurance of victory, whatever 
might be the force prepared to receive us. 

We anchored opposite to a point a little beyond the 
range of the guns of the city and castle, when some 
fifty-five hundred men instantly filled up the sixty- 
seven surf boats I had caused to be built for this special 
occasion — each holding fi'om seventy to eighty men — 
besides a few cutters belonging to the larger war 
vessels. Commodore Conner also supplied steerers 
(officers) and sailors as oarsmen. The whole, again 
cheering, as they passed my ship wearing the broad 
pennant, pulled away right for the shore, landed in the 
exact order prescribed, about half past five p. m., with- 
out the loss of a boat or a man, and, to the astonish- 
ment of all, without opposition other than a few 



420 Siibject Continued. 

whizzing shells that did no harm. Another trip or 
two enabk'd tlie row-houts to put ashore the whole 
force, rather less than twelve thousand men, though I 
liad been promised double the number — my niininium j 
Init I never had, at any one time in the campaign, 
more tlian thirteen thousand iive hundred, until the 
tiii'litiny; was over, when I was encumbered witli the 
troops that Taylor found at last he could not use. 

An article from the New Orleans Bnlletm^ of 
March 27, 18-iT, written by an intelligent pen, respect- 
ing the landing of troops, is here inserted : 

" The landing of the American army at Vera Cruz 
has been accomplished in a manner that reflects the 
highest credit on all concerned ; and the regularity, 
precision, and promptness with which it was effected, 
has probably not been surpassed, if it has been equalled, 
in modern warfare. 

" The removal of a large body of troops from 
numerous transports into boats in an open sea — their 
subsequent disembarkation on the sea-beach, on an 
enemy's coast, through a surf, with all their arms and 
accoutrements, Mdthout a single erro^ or accident, re- 
quires great exertion, skill, and sound judgment. 



Vera Cruz and Castle Prepared. 421 

" The Frencli expedition against Algiers, in 1830, 
was said to be the most complete armament, in every 
respect, that ever left Europe ; it had been prepared 
with labor, attention, and experience, and nothing had 
been omitted to insure success, and particularly in the 
means and facilities for landing the troops. This dis- 
embarkation took place in a wide bay, which was more 
favorable than an open beach directly on the ocean, 
and (as in the present instance) without any resistance 
on the part of the enemy — yet, only nine thousand men 
were landed tlie first day, and from thirty to forty 
lives ^ere lost by accidents, or upsetting of boats ; 
whereas, on the present occasion, twelve thousand men 
were landed in one day, without, so far as we have 
heard, the slightest accident, or the loss of a single life." 

The city of Yera Cruz, and its castle, San Juan 
de Ulloa, were both strongly garrisoned. Santa Anna, 
relying npon them to hold out till the vomito (yellow 
fever) became rife, had returned to his capital, and was 
busy in collecting additional troops, mostly old, from 
every quarter of the republic, in order to crush the 
invasion, should it advance, at the first formidable pass 
in the interior. 



422 City Invested hy Land. 

Tlie walls and forts of Yera Cruz, in 1847, were in 
good condition. Subsequent to its capture by the 
French under Admiral Baudin and Prince de Join- 
ville, in 1838, the castle had been greatly extended — 
almost rebuilt, and its armament about doubled. Be- 
sides, the French were allowed to reconnoitre the city 
and castle, and choose their positions of attack without 
the least resistance — the Mexicans deprecating war 
with that nation, and hence ordered not to fire the first 
gun. Of that injunction the French were aware. 
When we approached, in 1847, the castle had the 
capacity to sink the entire American navy. 

Immediately after landing, I made, with Colonel 
(soon after Brigadier-General) Totten, and other stafit' 
ofiicers, a reconnoissance of the land side of the city, 
having previously reconnoitred the water front. This 
was at once followed by a close investment, so that 
there could be no communication between the garrisons 
and the interior. The blockade, by Commodore Con- 
ner, had long before been complete. Grave delibera- 
tions followed. From the first my hope had been to 
capture the castle under the shelter of, and through 
the city. This plan I had never submitted to discus- 
sion. Several Generals and Colonels — among them 



liegular Ajpjpi'oaches Preferred. 423 

Major-General Patterson — an excellent second in com- 
mand, notwithstanding his failure as chief on the She- 
nandoah in 1861 — solicited the privilege of leading 
storming parties. The applicants were thanked and 
applauded; hut I forehore saying to them more. In 
my little cahinet, however, consisting of Colonel Totten, 
Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Hitchcock, acting 
Inspector-General, Captain E,. E. Lee, Engineer, and 
(yet) First Lieutenant Henry L, Scott, acting Adjutant- 
General — I entered fully into the question of storming 
parties and regular siege approaches. A death-bed dis- 
cussion could hardly have been more solemn. Thus 
powerfully impressed — feeling Mr. Polk's halter around 
my neck, as I expressed myself at the time — I opened 
the subject substantially as follows : 

" We, of course, gentlemen, must take the city and 
castle before the return of the vomito — if not by head- 
work, the slow, scientific process, by storming — and 
then escape, by pushing the conquest into the healthy 
interior. I am strongly inclined to attempt the former 
unless you can convince me that the other is prefer- 
able. Since our thorough reconnoissance, I think the 



4:24 ReasQiia for that Decision. 

suggestion practicable with a very moderate loss on 
our part. 

" The second method, would, no doubt, be equally 
successful, but at the cost of an ininiense slaughter to 
both sides, including non-combatants — Mexican men, 
women, and children — because assaults must be made 
in the dark, and the assailants dare not lose time in 
taking and guarding prisoners without incurring the 
certainty of becoming captives themselves, till all the 
strongholds of the place are occupied. The horrors of 
such slaughter, with the usual terrible accompani- 
ments, are most revolting;. Besides these objections, 
it is necessary to take into the account the probable 
loss of some two thousand, perhaps, three thousand of 
our best men in an assault, and I have received but 
half the numbers promised me. How then could we 
hope to penetrate the interior ? " " For these rea- 
sons," I added, quoting literally — " although I know 
onr countrymen will hardly acknowledge a \ictory un- 
accompanied by a long butcher's bill (report of killed 
and wounded) I am strongly inclined — policy con- 
curring with humanity — to ' forego their loud applause 
and aves vehement,' and take the city with the least 
possible loss of life. In this determination I know, 



Trenches Ojpened. 425 

as Dogberry says truly of himself, I ' write me down 
an ass.' " * 

My decided bias in favor of jDroceeding by siege, 
far from being combated, was fully concurred in. 
Accordingly Colonel Totten, tlie able chief engineer, 
and bis accomplislied assistants, proceeded to open the 
trencbes and establisb tbe batteries deemed necessary, 
after, by a general sweep, every post and sentry of the 
enemy bad been driven in. 

* When the victory of Buena Vista reached Major-General Brooke (a 
noble old soldier) commanding at Xew Orleans, and a friend of Major- 
General Taylor, he rushed, with the report in hand, through the streets to 
the Exchange, and threw the whole city into a frenzy of joy. By and by, 
came the news that the Stars and Stripes waved over Vera Cruz and its 
castle, and Brooke, also a friend of mine, was again eager to spread the 
report. Somebody in the crowd early called out : " How many men has 
Scott lost ? " Brooke was delighted to reply—" Less than a hundred." 
" That won't do," was promptly rejoined. " Taylor always loses thousands. 
He is the man for my money." Only a few faint cheers were heard for 
Vera Cruz. The long butcher's bill was wanted. When I received friend 
Brooke's letter giving these details, I own that my poor human nature was 
piqued for a moment ; and I said : " Never mmd. Taylor is a Louisi- 
anian. We shall, in due time, hear the voice of the Middle, the Northern, 
and Eastern States. They will estimate victories on different principles." 
But I was mistaken. The keynote raised in New Orleans was taken up 
all over the land. Mortifications are profitable to sufferers, and I record 
mine to teach aspirants to fame to cultivate humility ; for blessed is the 
man who expects little, and can gracefully submit to less. 



42fi Batteries Ready — Summons. 

All sieges are much alike, and as this is not a 
treatise on engineering, scientific details are liere omit- 
ted. We took care, in our approaches to keep the 
city as a shield between us and tlie terrible fire of the 
castle : but tlie forts in the walls of the city were ibr- 
niidable spitfires. They were rarely out of blast. 
Yet the approaches were so adroitly conducted, that 
our losses in them were surprisingly small, and no 
serious sortie was hazarded by the garrison. 

The arming of the advanced batteries had been 
retarded by a very protracted gale {norther) which cut 
off all commimication with our vessels in the offing, 
(iround was, however, broken on the 18th, and by the 
22d, heavy ordnance enough for a beginning being in 
position, the governor of the city, who was also gov- 
ernor of the castle, was duly summoned to surrender. 
The relusal was no sooner received than a fire on the 
walls and forts was opened. In the attempt to batter 
in breach, and to silence the forts, a portion of our 
shots and shells, in the course of the siege, unavoid- 
ably penetrated the city and set fire to many houses. 
By the 24th, the landing of additional heavy guns and 
tnortars gave us all the battering power needed, and the 
next day, as I reported to Washington, the whole was 



Overtures — Commissioners Ap2)oint€d. 427 

in " awful activity." The same day there came a me- 
morial from the foreign consuls in Yera Cruz, asking 
for a truce to enable them, and the women and children 
of the inhabitants, to withdraw in safety. They had in 
time been duly warned of the impending danger, and 
allowed to the 22d to retire, which they had sullenly 
neglected, and the consuls had also declined the written 
safe-guards I had pressed upon them. The season had 
advanced, and I was aware of several cases of yellow 
fever in the city and neighborhood. Detachments of 
the enemy too were accumulating behind us, and ru- 
mors spread, by them, that a formidable army would 
soon approach to raise the siege. Tenderness there- 
fore fur the women and children — in the form of delay 
— might, in its consequences, have led to the loss of the 
campaign, and, indeed to the loss of the army — two 
thirds by pestilence, and the remainder by surrender. 
Hence I promptly replied to the consuls that no truce 
could be allowed except on the application of the gov- 
ernor (General Morales), and that with a view to 
surrender. Accordingly, the next morning General 
Landero, who had been put in the supreme command 
for that purpose, offered to entertain the question of 
submission. Commissioners were appointed on both 



428 City and Castle Surrendered^ 

sides, and on tlie 2Ttli terms of surrender, including 
l)otli the city and castle of Ulloa, agreed upon, signed 
and exchanged. The garrisons marched out, laying 
down their arms, and were sent home prisoners of war 
on parole. 

This was better for the consuls, women, and chil- 
dren, as well as for the United States, than the 
tem/porary truce that I rejected — notwithstanding the 
ignorant censure cast on nij conduct, on that occasion, 
by Mr. William Jay, in his book — Review of the 
Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War, pp, 
202-4. 

The surrender of the castle of San Jnan de Ulloa, 
was necessarily involved in the fate of the city, because 
the enemy, until a late moment, had expected the 
former would be the first object of attack, and relying 
upon its impregnable strength, had neglected to lay in 
a supply of fresh water and provisions — as these could 
be sent over daily from the city. The capture of the 
latter, therefore, placed the castle entirely at our mercy. 

The economy of life, by means of head-work, to 
which, as has been seen, Americans were quite indiffer- 
ent, was never more conspicuous than on this occasion. 
The city and castle ; the republic's principal port of 



Some of the Fruits of Yictory — Losses. 429 

foreign commerce ; five thousand prisoners, with a 
greater number of small arms ; four hundred pieces 
of ordnance and large stores of ammunition, were the 
great results of the first twenty days after our landing, 
and all at the very small loss, in numbers, of sixty-four 
officers and men killed or wounded. Among the slain 
were two captains, J. E.. Yinton and W. Alburtis, 
both of high merit— Yinton, perhaps, the most accom- 
plished ofiicer in the army. The enemy's loss in killed 
and wounded was not considerable, and of other per- 
sons — citizens — not three were slain — all being in stone 
houses, and most of the inhabitants taking refuge in 
basements. 

The official report of those extraordinary successes, 
in which due praise was bestowed on corps and officers 
by name, as well as on the cooperation of the navy, 
was taken to Washington by Colonel Totten, of the 
Engineers, who was duly brevetted a brigadier-general 
for his great services in the siege. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

BATTLE OF OERKO GOKDO, JALAPA, PEKOTE AND iniEBLA 
HALTS VISIT TO CHOLULA. 

Fortunately, the frequency of the gales, called north- 
ers^ had kept oif the vomito^ as an epidemic, though a 
few cases liad occurred in the city ; but, unfortunately, 
the want of road-power — horses and umles — detained 
the body of the army at Vera Cruz from its capture, 
March 29, till toward the middle of April. 

Some wagons and harness came first, and by the 
8th, we hitched up a train sufficient to put Brigadier- 
General Twiggs's division, composed of brigades under 
Colonels Harney and Riley, Mith Major Talcott's light 
battery, all regulars, in marcli for tlie interior. Major- 
General Patterson, commanding a division of three 



Advcmce of Two Divisions. 431 

volunteer brigades, under Brigadier-Generals Pillow, 
Quitman, and Shields, was next supplied with partial 
means of transportation, and followed Twiggs. Draft 
animals and wagons continued to arrive slowly (more 
of the latter than the former), but never in sufficient 
numbers. Hence a siege train of six pieces only, foui 
of M'hich were heavy, was fitted for the road, and hence 
Worth's division of regulars was detained until the 16th. 
Each division and detachment of troops had instruc- 
tions to take, in wagons, subsistence for men equal to 
. six days, and oats for horses equal to three, besides the 
usual numljer of cooked rations for men in haversacks. 

Those suj)plies were deemed indispensable to take 
the corps to Jalapa, a productive region, abounding 
in many articles of food as well as in mules, which we 
so much needed for the remaining wagons at Yera 
Cruz. Some hundreds of these animals were pur- 
chased, and sent below to bring up ammunition, medi- 
cines, hospital stores, clothing, and some bacon, there 
being but little in the country, and fresh beef not 
always to be had. But this is anticipating. 

Hearing that Twiggs, supported by Patterson, 
found himself confronted at Plan del Rio, some fifty 
miles in the interior, by a strong body of the enemy, 



432 Scott Called to the Front. 

and that both divisions were desirous of my presence, 
I left Vera Cruz on the 12th of April, with a small 
escort of cavalry under Captain Philip Kearny (who 
fell in 1SG2, a distinguished major-general), and has- 
tened to the front. Major-General Patterson, though 
cpiite sick, had assumed the command on joining 
Twiggs, in order to prohibit any aggressive movement 
before my arrival, according to the universal wish of 
the troops. ]^o commander was ever received with 
heartier cheers — the certain presage of the victories 
that followed. 

The two advanced divisions lay in the valley .of the 
Plan del Kio, and the body of the enemy about three 
miles off, on the heights of Cerro Gordo. Keconnais- 
sances were pushed in search of some practicable route, 
other than the winding, zig-zag road, among the spurs 
of mountains, with heavy batteries at every turn. The 
recoriaijissances were conducted with vigor under Cap- 
tain Lee, at the head of a body of pioneers, and at the 
end of the third day, a passable way for light batteries 
was accomplished — without alarming the enemy — ^w- 
ing the possibility of turning the extreme left of liis 
line of defences, and capturing his whole army, except 
the reserve that lay a mile or two higher up the road. 



Orders for a General Battle. ^^'6^6 

Santa Anna said, after the event, that he had not be- 
lieved a goat could have approached him in that diree 
tion. Hence the surprise and results were the greater. 
The time for aggression being at hand, I — in order 
to insure harmony by letting all commanders know 
what each was expected to execute — issued this pro- 
phetic order : 



GENERAL ORDERS, | Headquarters of the Army, 

jj ,,, f Plan del Rio, ^joriMY, 1847- 

The enemy's whole line of intrenchments and bat- 
teries will be attacked in front, and at the same time 
turned, early in the day to-morrow — probably before 
ten o'clock a. m. 

The second (Twiggs's) division of regulars is already 
advanced within easy turning distance toward the ene- 
my's left. That division has instructions to move for- 
ward before daylight to-morrow, and take up position 
across the national road in the enemy's rear, so as to 
cut off a retreat toward Jalapa. It may be reen- 
forced to-day, if unexpectedly attacked in force, by 
regiments — one or two — taken from Shields's brigade 

of volunteers. If not, the two volunteer regiments will 
19 



4:34 Details of the Orders. 

march for that purpose at daylight to-morrow momino-, 
under Brigadier-General Shields, who will report to 
Brigadier-General Twiggs on getting up with him, or 
to the general-in-chief, if he be in advance. 

The remaining regiment of that volunteer brigade 
will receive instinictions in the course of this day. 

The lirst division of regulars (Worth's) will follow 
the movement against the enemy's left at sunrise to- 
morrow morning. 

As already arranged, Brigadier-General Pillow's 
brigade will march at six o'clock to-morrow morning, 
along the route he has carefully reconnoitred, and stand 
ready, as soon as he hears the report of arms on our 
right, or sooner, if circumstances should favor him, to 
pierce the enemy's line of batteries at such point — the 
nearer to the river the better — as he may select. Once 
in the rear of that line, he will turn to the right or left, 
or both, and attack the batteries in reverse, or, if aban- 
doned, he will pursue the enemy with vigor until fur- 
ther orders. 

"Wall's field battery and the cavalry will be held in 
reserve on the national road, a little out of vievv' and 
range of the enemy's batteries. They will take up 
that position at nine o'clock in the morning. 



Details Continued. 435 

The enemy's batteries beino; carried or abandoned, 
all our divisions and corps will pursue with vigor. 

This pursuit may be continued many miles, until 
stopped by darkness or fortified positions, toward Ja- 
lapa. Consequently, the body of the army will not 
return to this encampment ; but be followed, to-morrow 
afternoon or early the next morning, by the baggage 
trains of the several corps. For this purpose, the 
feebler officers and men of each corps will be left to 
guard its camp and effects, and to load up the latter in 
the wagons of the corps. A conraiander of the present 
encampment will be designated in the course of this 
day. 

As soon as it shall be knov^Ti that the enemy's 
works have been carried, or that tlie general pursuit 
has been commenced, one wagon for each regiment and 
battery, and one for the cavalry, will follow the move- 
ment, to receive, under the direction of medical offi- 
cers, the wounded and disabled, who will be brought 
back to this place for treatment in general hospital. 

The surgeon-general will organize this important 
service, and designate that hospital as well as the 
medical officers to be left at it. 

Every man who marclies out to attack or pursue 



436 Exact Execution of Orders. 

the enemy will take tlie usual allowance of ammu- 
nition, and subsistence for at least two days. 
By command of Major-General Scott. 

II. L. SCOTT, 

A. A.-General. 



IIeadquartks of the Army, Plan \ 
DEL Rio, Fifty Miles from r 
Vera Cruz, April 19, 1847. ) 

Sir : 

The plan of attack, sketched in General Orders No. 
Ill, herewith, was finely executed by this gallant army 
before two o'clock p. m., yesterday. We are quite em- 
barrassed with the results of victory — prisoners of war, 
heavy ordnance, field batteries, small arms, and ac- 
coutrements. About 3,000 men laid down their arms, 
with the usual proportion of field and company oflicers, 
besides five generals, several of them of great distinc- 
tion — ^Pinson, Jarrero, La Yega, Xoriega, and Obando. 
A sixth general, Yasquez, was killed in defending the 
battery (tower) in the rear of the line of defence, the 
capture of which gave us those glorious results. 

Our l<>:^s, though comparatively small in numbers, 



Battle of Cerro Gordo — Rejport. 437 

has been serious. Brigadier-General Shields, a com- 
mander of activity, zeal, and talent, is, I fear, if not 
dead, mortally wouiTded. lie is some live miles from 
me at the moment. The field of operations covered 
many miles, broken by mountains and deep chasms, 
and I have not a report as yet from any division or 
brigade. Twiggs's division, followed by Shields's (now 
Colonel Baker's) brigade, are now at or near Jalapa, 
and Worth's division is in route thither ; all pursuing, 
with good results, as I learn, that part of the Mexican 
army, perhaps six or seven thousand men, that fled 
before our right had carried the tower, and gained the 
Jalapa road. Pillow's brigade alone is near me at 
this depot of wounded, sick, and prisoners, and I have 
time only to give from him the names of First Lieu- 
tenant F. B. Nelson, and Second Lieutenant C. G. 
Gill, both of the 2d Tennessee Foot (Haskell's regi- 
ment), among the killed ; and in the brigade, one hun- 
dred and six of all ranks killed or wounded. Among 
the latter, the gallant Brigadier-General himself has a 
smart wound in the arm, but not disabled, and Major 
R. Farqueson, 2d Tennessee ; Captain H. F. Murray, 
Second Lieutenant G. T. Sutherland, First Lieutenant 
W. P. Hale (Adjutant), all of the same regiment. 



438 Report Continued. 

severely, and First Lieutenant "W. Yearwood, mortally 
wounded. And I know, from personal observation on 
the ground, that First Lieutenant Ewell, of the Rifles, 
if not now dead, was mortally wounded in entering, 
sword in hand, the intrenchments around the captured 
tower. Second Lieutenant Derby, Topographical En- 
gineers, I also saw, at the same place, severely wound- 
ed, and Captain Patten, 2d United States' Infantry, 
lost his right hand. Major Sumner, 2d United States' 
Dragoons, was slightly wounded the day before, and 
Captain Johnston, Topographical Engineers (now 
Ijieutenant-Colonel of infantry), was very severely 
wounded, some days earlier, while reconnoitring. I 
must not omit to add that Captain Mason and Second 
Lieutenant Davis, both of the Rifles, were among the 
very severely wounded in storming the same tower. 
I estimate our total loss in killed and wounded may be 
about two hundred and fifty, and that of the enemy 
three hundred and fifty. In the jnirsuit toward Ja- 
lapa (twenty-five miles hence), I learn we have added 
much to the enemy's loss in prisoners, killed, and 
wounded. In fact, I suppose his retreating army to 
be nearly disorganized ; and hence my haste to follow, 
in an hour or two, to profit by events. 



Rejport Continued. 439 

In this hurried and imperfect report I must not 
omit to say that Brigadier-General Twiggs, in passing 
the mountain range beyond Cerro Gordo, crowned with 
the tow^er, detached from his division, as I suggested 
the day before, a strong force to carry that height, 
which commanded the Jalapa road at the foot, and 
could not fail, if carried, to cut off the whole or any 
part of the enemy's forces from a retreat in any direc- 
tion. A portion of the 1st Artillery, under the often 
distinguished Brevet Colonel Childs, the 3d Infantry, 
under Captain Alexander, the Yth Infantry, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Plympton, and the Eifles, under 
Major Loring, all under the temporary command of 
Colonel Harney, 2d Dragoons, during the confinement 
to his bed of Brevet Brigadier-General P. F. Smith, 
composed that detachment. The style of execution, 
which I had the pleasure to witness, was most brilliant 
and decisive. The brigade ascended the long and 
difiicidt slope of Cerro Gordo, without shelter, and 
under the tremendous fire of artillery and musketry, 
with the utmost steadiness, reached the breastworks, 
drove the enemy from them, planted the colors of the 
1st Artillery, 3d and Yth Infantry — the enemy's flag 



440 Report Continued. 

still flying — and after some minutes of sharp firing, 
finished the conquest M'ith the baj-ouet. 

It is a most pleasing duty to say that the highest 
praise is due to Harney, Cliihls, Plymptou, Loring, 
Alexander, their gallant officers and men, for this bril- 
liant service, independent of the great results which 
soon followed. 

Worth's division of regulars coming up at this time, 
he detached Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel C. F. Smith, 
with liis light battalion, to support the assault, but not 
in time. The general, reaching the tower a few minutes 
before me, and observing a white flag displayed from 
the nearest portion of the enemy toward the batteries 
below, sent out Colonels Harney and Ghilds to liold a 
parley. The surrender followed in an hour or two. 

Major-General Patterson left a sickbed to share in 
the dangers and fatigues of the day ; and after the sur- 
render went forward to command the advanced forces 
toward Jalap a. 

Brigadier-General Pillow and his brigade twice as- 
saulted with great daring the enemy's line of batteries 
on our left ; and, thougli without success, they con- 
tributed much to distract and dismay their immediate 
opponents. 



Report Continued. 441 

President Santa Anna, with Generals Canalizo and 
Ampudia, and some six or eight thousand men, escaped 
toward Jalapa jnst before Cerro Gordo was carried, 
and before Twig-ffs's division reached the national road 
above. 

I have determined to parole the prisoners — officers 
and men — as I have not the means of feeding them 
here beyond to-daj, and cannot afford to detach a 
heavy body of horse and foot, with wagons, to accom- 
pany them to Yera Cruz. Our baggage train, though 
increasing, is not yet half large enough to give an as- 
sured progress to this army. Besides, a greater num- 
ber of prisonei's would probably escape from the escort 
in the long and deep sandy road without subsistence — 
ten to one — than we shall find again out of the same 
body of men in the rrfnks opposed to us. Xot one of 
the Yera Cruz prisoners is believed to have been in the 
lines of Cerro Gordo. Some six of the officers, highest 
in rank, refuse to give their paroles, except to go to 
Yera Cruz, and thence, perhaps, to the United States. 

The small arms and their accoutrements, being of 

no value to our army here or at home, I have ordered 

them to be destroyed ; for we have not the means of 

transporting them. I am also somewhat emljarrassed 
19* 



442 Report Continutd. 

with tlie pieces of artillery — all bronze — wliicli 

we have captured. It would take a brigade and half 
the mules of this army to transport tliem lifty miles. 
A field battery I sliall take for service with the army ; 
but the heavy metal must be collected and left here for 
the present. We have our own siege-train and the 
proper carriages with us. 

Being much occupied with the prisoners and all the 
details of a forward movement, besides looking to the 
supplies which are to follow from Vera Cruz, I have 
time to add no more — intending to be at Jala]ia early 
to-morrow. We sliall not probably again meet with 
serious opposition this side of Perote — certainly not, 
unless delayed by the want of the means of transj)or- 
tation. 

I have the honor to remain, sir, M'ith high respect, 
your most obedient servant, 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 

P. S. — I invite 'attention to the accompanying letter 
to President Santa Anna, taken in his carriage yester- 
day ; also to his proclamation, issued on hearing that 
we liad captured Vera Cruz, etc., in whicli he says : 
"If the enemy advance one step more, tlie national 



Cerro Gordo — Supjflemental Report. 443 

independence will be buried in the abyss of the past." 

We have taken that step. 

^V. S. 

I make a second postscript, to say there is some 
hope, I am happy to learn, that General Shields may 
snrvive his wounds. 

One of the principal motives for paroling the prison- 
ers of war is to diminish the resistance of other garri- 
sons in our march. 

W. S. 

Hon. W m. L. Marct, Secretary of War. 



Headquarters of the Army, i 
Jalapa, April 23, 1847. ( 

Sm: 

In forwarding the reports of commanders which 
detail the operations of their several corps against the 
Mexican lines at Cerro Gordo, I shall present, in con- 
tinuation of my former report, but an outline of the 
affair, and while adopting heartily their commenda- 
tions of the ardor and efficiency of individuals, I shall 
mention by name only those who figure prominently, 



444 Supplemental Report Continued. 

or, from position, could not be included in those sub- 
reports. 

The field sketch herewith, indicates the positions 
of the two armies. The tierra calicnte^ or low level, 
terminates at Plan del Rio^ the site of the American 
camp, from which the road ascends immediately in a 
long circuit among lofty hills, whose commanding 
points had all been fortified and garrisoned by the 
enemy. His right, intrenched, rested on a precipice 
overhanging an impassable ravine that forms the bed 
of the stream ; and his intreuchments extended con- 
tinuously to the road, on which was placed a formida- 
ble battery. On the other side, the lofty and difficult 
height of Cerro Gordo commanded the approaches in 
all directions. The main body of the Mexican army 
was encamped on level ground, with a battery of five 
pieces, half a mile in rear of that height toward Jalapa. 

Resolving, if possible, to turn the enemy's left, and 
attack in rear, while menacing or engaging his front, I 
caused daily reconnaissances to be pushed, with the 
view of finding a route for a force to debouch on the 
Jalapa road and cut off retreat. 

The reconnaissance begun by Lieutenant Beaure- 
gard, was continued by Captain Lee, Engineers, and a 



Supplemental Report Continued. 445 

road made along difficult slopes and over chasms — out 
of the enemy's view, though reached Lj his fire when 
discovered — until, arriving at the Mexican lines, further 
reconnaissance became impossible without an action. 
The desired point of debouchure, the Jalapa road, was 
not therefore reached, though believed to be within 
easy distance ; and to gain that point, it now became 
necessary to carry the heiglit of Cerro Gordo. Tlie 
dispositions in my plan of battle — general orders No. 
Ill, heretofore enclosed — were accordingly made. 

Twiggs's division, reenforced by Shields's brigade of 
volunteers, was thrown into position on the 17th, and 
was, of necessity, drawn into action in taking up the 
ground for its bivouac and the opposing height for 
our heavy battery. It will be seen that many of our 
officers and men were killed or wounded in this shaq> 
combat — handsomely commenced by a company of the 
7th Infantry under Brevet First Lieutenant Gardner, 
who is highly praised by all his commanders for signal 
services. Colonel Harney coming up with the rifle 
regiment and 1st Artillery (also parts of his brigade) 
brushed away the enemy and occupied the height — on 
which, in the night, was placed a battery of one 24- 
pounder and two 24-pound howitzers, under the super- 



446 Snpjdemental liejport Continued. 

inteiidence of Captain Lee, Engineers, and Lieutenant 
Hagner, Ordnance. These guns opened next morning, 
and were served with eftect l)y Captain Step toe and 
Lieutenant Brown, od Artillery, Lieutenant Hagner 
(Ordnance), and Lieutenant Seymour, 1st Artillery. 

The same night, with extreme toil and difficulty, 
under the superintendence of Lieutenant Tower, Engi- 
neer, and Lieutenant Laidley, Ordnance, an eight-inch 
howitzer was put in position across the river and oppo- 
site to the enemy's right battery. A detachment of 
four companies, under Major Burnham, New York Vol- 
unteers, performed this creditable service, which enabled 
Lieutenant Ripley, 2d Artillery, in charge of the piece, 
to open a timely fire in that quarter. 

Early on the 18th, the columns moved to the gen- 
eral attack, and our success was speedy and decisive. 
Billow's brigade, assaulting the right of the intrench- 
ments, although compelled to retire, had the effect I 
have heretofore stated. Twiggs's division, storming 
ths strong and vital point of Cerro Gordo, pierced the 
centre, gained command of all of the intrenchments, 
and cut them olf from support. As our infantry 
(Colonel Riley's brigade) pushed on against the main 
body of the enemy, the guns of their own fort were 



Suj^plemental Rcjport Continued. 447 

rapidly turned to play on that force (under tlie imme- 
diate command of General Santa Anna), who fled in 
confusion. Sliields's brigade, bravely assaulting the 
left, carried the rear battery (five guns) on the Jalapa 
road, and aided materially in completing the rout of 
the enemy. 

The part taken by the remainder of our forces, held 
in reserve to support and pursue, has already been 
noticed. 

The moment the fate of the day was decided, the 
cavalry, and Taylor's, and Wall's field batteries were 
pushed on toward Jalapa in advance of the pm'suing 
columns of infantry — Twiggs's division and the Brigade 
of Shields (now under Colonel Eaker) — and Major- 
General Patterson was sent to take command of them. 
In the hot pursuit many Mexicans were captured or 
slain before our men and horses were exhausted by the 
heat and distance. 

The rout proves to have been complete — the retreat- 
ing army, except a small body of cavalry, being dis- 
persed and utterly disorganized. The immediate con- 
sequences have been our possession of this important 
city, the abandonment of the works and artillery at La 
IToya, the next formidable pass between Yera Cruz and 



448 Sujpplemental Beport Continued. 

the capital, and tlie j^rompt occupation by Worth's 
division of tlie fortress of Perote (second only to San 
Juan de Ulloa), with its extensive armament of sixty- 
six guns and mortars, and its large supplies of materiel. 
To General Worth's report, annexed, I refer for details. 

I have heretofore endeavored to do justice to the 
skill and courage with which the attack on the height 
of Cerro Gordo was directed and executed, naming the 
regiments most distinguished, and their commanders, 
under the lead of Colonel Harney. Lieutenant G. W. 
Smith led the engineer company as part of the storm- 
ing force, and is noticed with distinction. 

The reports of this assault make favorable mention 
of many in which I can well concur, having witnessed 
the daring advance and perfect steadiness of the whole. 
Beside those already named. Lieutenant Brooks, 3d 
Infantry; Lieutenant Maedonald, 2d Dragoons; Lieu- 
tenant Vandorn, Tth Infantry — all acting staff officers 
— Captain Magruder, 1st Artillery, and Lieutenant 
Gardner, Tth Infantry, seem to have won especial 
pmise. 

Colonel Riley's brigade and Talcott's rocket and 
howitzer battery, were engaged on and about the 
heights, and bore an active part. 



Supplement Continued. 449 

The brigade so gallantly led by General Shields, 
and, after his fall, by Colonel Baker, deserves high 
commendation for its fine behavior and success, Colo- 
2iels Foreman and Burnett, and Major Harris, com- 
manded the regiments ; Lieutenant Hammond, 3d 
Artillery, and Lieutenant Davis, Illinois Yolunteers, 
constituted the brigade staff. These operations, hid 
from my view by intervening hills, were not fully 
known when my first report was hastily written. 

Brigadier-General Twiggs, who was in the imme- 
diate command of all the advanced forces, has earned 
liigh credit by his judgment, spirit, and energ}^ 

The conduct of Colonels Campbell, Haskell, and 
Wynkoop, commanding the regiments of Pillow's bri- 
gade, is reported in terms of strong approbation by 
Major-General Patterson. I recommend for a com- 
mission, Quartermaster-Sergeant Henry, of the Tth 
Infantry (already known to the army for intrepidity 
on former occasions), who hauled down the national 
standard of the Mexican fort. 

In expressing my indebtedness for able assistance 
to Lieutenant -Colon el Hitchcock, Acting Inspector- 
General, to Majors Smith and Turnbull, the respective 
Chiefs of Engineers and Topograpliical Engineers — 



450 Sujyplemcnt Continued. 

to their Assistants, Lieutenants Mason, Beauregard, 
Stevens, Tower, G, W. Smith, McClellan, Engineers, 
and Lieutenants Derby and Hardcastle, Topographical 
Engineers — to Captain Allen, Chief Quartermaster, 
and Lieutenant Blair, Chief Commissary — and to Lieu- 
tenants Ilagner and Laidley, Ordnance — all actively 
employed — I am compelled to make special mention 
of the services of Captain R. E. Lee, Engineer. This 
officer, greatly distinguished at the siege of Yera Cruz, 
was again indefatigable, during these operations, in 
reconnaissances as daring as laborious, and of the utmost 
value. Nor was he less conspicuous in planting bat- 
teries, and in conducting columns to their stations un- 
der the heavy lire of the enemy. 

My personal staif, Lieutenants Scott, Williams, and 
Lay, and Major Yan Buren, who volunteered for the 
occasion, gave me zealous and efficient assistance. 

Our whole force present, in action and in reserve, 
was eight thousand five hundred ; the enemy is esti- 
mated at twelve thousand, or more. About three thou- 
sand prisoners, four or fi\e thousand stands of arms, 
and forty-three pieces of artillery were taken. By tlie 
accompanying return, I regret to find our loss more 
severe than at first supposed, amounting in the two 



End of Supplement. 451 

days to thirty-three officers and three hundred and 
ninety-eight men — in all four hundred and thirty-one, 
of whom sixty-three were killed. The enemy's loss is 
computed to be from one thousand to one thousand 
two hundred. 

I am happy in communicating strong hopes of the 
recovery of the gallant General Shields, who is so much 
improved as to have been brought to this place. 

Appended to this report are the following papers : 

A. — General return by name of killed and wounded, 

B. — Copies of report of Lieutenant-Colonel Hitch- 
cock, Acting Inspector-General (of prisoners taken) and 
accompanying papers. 

C. — Report of Brigadier-General Twiggs, and sub- 
reports. 

D. — Report of Major-General Patterson, and re- 
ports of brigade commanders. 

E. — Copy of report of Brigadier-General Worth, 
announcing the occupation by his division of the castle 
and town of Perote, without opposition with an inven- 
tory of ordnance there found. 

I have the honor to remain, sir, with high respect, 

your most obedient servant, 

W INFIELD SCOTT. 

Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, Secretary of War. 



452 Perote Occujpied — Dlsdianje of Volunteers. 

Tliis terrible blow following closely on the captures 
of the preceding month, threw the Mexicans into con- 
sternation. Jiilapa was abandoned, and I pushed 
Worth's division forward to tread on the heels of the 
fugitives and increase the panic. 

Approaching Perote, its formidable castle also open- 
ed its gates without firing a gun, and the same divis- 
ion took quiet possession of the great city of Puebla. 
But here the career of conquest was arrested for a time. 

I had been obliged to lessen the stren^-th of a 
diminutive army by leaving respectable garrisons of 
regulars, in Yera Cruz and the Castle of San Juan de 
Ulloa. And now at Jalapa, without having received 
any recnforcements, it became necessary to discharge 
some four thousand volunteers whose respective terms 
of service were about to ex]Dire. They gave notice 
that they would continue with me to the last day, but 
would then certainly demand discharges and the means 
of transportation homeward. As any delay might 
throw them upon the yellow fever, at Yera Cruz, the 
discharges were given at once. 

We were delayed nearly a month at Jalapa waiting 
for a partial supply of necessaries from Yera Cruz by 
the second and third trips of our feeble trains, and with 



Garrison Left at Jalapa. 453 

a faint liope of recinforcements. Not a company came. 
At length, toward the end of May, I marched, with the 
reserve, to join the advanced division (Worth's) at 
Puebhi — leaving a strong garrison at Jalapa, under 
Colonel Childs, to keep the line of communication open 
with Yera Cruz as long as possible. Indeed, at that 
time, I had not entirely lost the hope of receiving new 
regiments of regulars and volunteers in numbers suffi- 
cient to maintain our communications with the ocean 
and home throughout the campaign by means of gar- 
risons at the JSTational Bridge, Perote, Puebla, and Rio 
Frio, as well as at Yera Cruz and Jalapa. 

Waiting for reenforcements, the halt, at Puebla, 
was protracted and irksome. The Benton intrigue had 
so disgusted a majority of the two houses of Congress, 
that the bill authorizing the ten new regiments of regu- 
lars lingered from the beginning of December down 
to the 11th of February — the Administration having 
sunk too low to hasten its passage a day in advance of 
the usual sluggish forms of legislation. 

In the mean time, the army at Puebla was not inac- 
tive. All the corps, amounting to about five thousand 
effective men, were daily put through their manosuvi-es 
and evolutions. We were also kept on the alert by 



454 Puebla — No Recnforcements. 

ail army sometimes of superior numbers, liovering 
aljoiit us, and often assuming a menacing attitude ; 
but always ready for flight tlie moment they saw that 
we were under arms. On these occasions it was painful 
to restrain the ardor of tlie troops. But I steadily held 
to the policy not to wear out patience and sole leather 
by running to the right or left in the pursuit of small 
game. I played for the big stakes. Keejiing the army 
massed and the mind fixed upon the capital, I meant to 
content myself with beating whatever force that might 
stand directly in the way of that conquest — being moral- 
ly sure that all smaller objects would soon follow that 
crowning event. 

The city of Puebla, washed by a fine, flowing 
stream, is near the centre of a valley of uncommon 
fertility and beauty, producing, annually, two abun- 
dant crops for the subsistence of men and animals — 
one by rains, and the other by artificial irrigation. 
All the cereals — wheat, barley, maize and rye ; all the 
grasses, including clover, lucerne, and timothy, and 
all the fruit-trees — the apple, peach, apricot and pear, 
grow here as well as in the region of Frederic, Mary- 
land — the elevation (near seven thousand feet above 
the 0(;ean) making a dift'erence in climate, equal to 



splendid Scenery— Cholula. 455 

eigliteen or twenty degrees of latitude. Many objects 
within the horizon of Puebla are among the sublimest 
features of nature. The white peak of Orizaba, the 
most distant, may always be seen in bright weather. 
The Malinche mountain, near by, is generally capped 
with snow ; Popocatapetl and his white sister, always, 
since the first snow fell after the creation. The city 
itself, with her hundred steeples and cathedral, in. 
majestic repose — seen from a certain elevation, is itself 
a magnificent object in the general landscape. 

During this halt, every corps of the army in suc- 
cession, made a most interesting excursion of six miles, 
to the ruins of the ancient city of Cholula, long, in 
point of civilization and art, the Etruria of this conti- 
nent, and in respect to religion, the Mecca of many of 
the earliest tribes known to tradition. Down to the 
time of Cortes, a little more than three hundred years 
before the Americans, Cholula, containing an ingenious 
and peaceable population of perhaps one hundred and 
fifty thousand souls, impressed with a unique tj\:>e of 
civilization, had fallen off, in 1847, to a miserable 
hamlet, its towers and dwellings of sun-baked bricks 
and stucco, in heaps of ruins. From these melancholy 
wrecks are yet disinterred productions of art of great 



456 Its Past Greatness. 

beauty and tlelicacy, in metals and porcelain, l)otli for 
ornament and use. The same people also manufac- 
tured cloths of cotton and the fibre of the agave plant. 

One grand feature, denoting the ancient grandeur 
of Cholula, stands but little affected by tlie lapse of 
perhaps thousands of years — a pyramid built of alter- 
nate layers of brick and clay, some two hundred feet 
in height, with a square basis of more than forty acres, 
running up to a plateau of seventy yards square. There 
stood in the time of Cortes, the great pagan temple of 
the Cholulans, with a perpetual blazing fire on its altar, 
seen in the night many miles around. This the Span- 
iards soon replaced by a Mjou of a church, something 
larger than the Casa Santa at Loretto, with a beauti- 
ful altar and many pictures. The ascent to this pla- 
teau is by a flight of some hundred and forty steps. 

The prosperity of Cholula, in 1520, was already on 
the decline, having recently fallen under the harsh 
rule of the Montezumas, and it now sustained a heavy 
blow at the hands of Cortes, an invited guest, who, to 
punish a detected conspiracy, that was intended to com- 
pass the destruction of his entire army, massacred more 
than six thousand of the inhabitants, including most 
of the chiefs, besides destroying entire streets of houses. 



A Visit to its Ruins. 457 

An admirer of scenery, and curious to view the 
ruins of Cbolula, the autobiographer, one bright morn- 
ing in June, suddenly determined to overtake a fine 
brigade of regulars that had advanced on that excur- 
sion, half an hour before. Even escorted by a squad- 
ron of cavalry this was an enterprise not without some 
danger, considering that he could make no movement 
without causing several citizens to fly off at full speed, 
on fine AndaUisian horses, to report the fact to detach- 
ments of cavalry lurking in the vicinity. 

Coming up with the brigade marching at ease,* all 
intoxicated with the fine air and splendid scenery, he 
was, as usual, received with hearty and protracted 
cheers. The group of officers who surrounded him, 
differed widely in the objects of their admiration — 
some preferring this or that snow-capped mountain, 
others the city, and several the pyramid of Cholula, 
that was now opening upon the view. An appeal 
from all was made to the general-in-chief. He em- 
phatically replied : " I differ from you all. My greatest 

* Troops, marching at ease, bear their arms oil either shoulder or in 
either hand, always keeping the muzzles of their arms up, and are at lib- 
erty to talk, laugh, sing or crack their jokes to their heart's content — only 
taking care not to confound their ranks. 
20 



458 Compliment to the Esiort. 

delight is in tliis fine body of troops, without whom, 
we can never sleep in the Halls of the Montezumas, or 
in our own homes." The word was caught up by some 
of the rank and file, marching abreast, and passed 
rapidly to the front and rear of the column, each 
platoon, in succession, rending the air with its accla- 
mation. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ADVANCE ON THE CAPITAL HALT AT AYOTLA RECON- 
NAISSANCES — SAJST AUGUSTIN CONTBEEAS. 

At length reenforcements began to approach. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Mcintosh with some eight hundred 
men, escorting a large train, was cliecked and delayed 
by the enemy in the march near Jalapa; but being 
soon joined by Brigadier-General Cadwallader, with a 
portion of his brigade and a field battery, the enemy 
was swept away and the two detachments arrived in 
safety at Puebla. Major-General Pillow followed with 
another detachment of a thousand men, and finally 
came Brigadier-General Pierce (August the 6th) witli 
a brigade of two thousand five hundred. 



460 Advance on the Cajpital. 

About this time, when General Taylor had more 
troops than he could employ, and yet clamored for re- 
enforcements — I was obliged, by paucity of numbers, 
to call up the garrison from Jalapa, under Colonel 
Childs, to make up my entire force at Puebla including 
the late reenforcements, to about fourteen thousand 
men, of whom two thousand five hundred were sick in 
hospital (mostly diarrhcea cases), and about six hundred 
convalescents, yet too feeble for an ordinary day's 
march. The latter, and an equal number of effective 
troops were designated as the gairison, under Colonel 
Childs, of the important city of Puebla — the whole 
route to Yera Cruz and all communications with home, 
being, for the time, abandoned. We had to throw 
away the scabbard and to advance with the naked 
blade in hand. 

The composition of the army in its march from 
Puebla to Mexico was as follows : 

GENERAL STiVTF. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, Assistant Inspector-General. 
Captain H. L. Scott, Acting Adjutant-General. 
First Lieutenant T. Williams, Aide-de-Camp. 
Brevet First Lieutenant G. W. Lay, Aide-de-Canip. 



Composition of the Army. 461 

Second Lieutenant Schuyler Hamilton, Aide-de-Camp. 
Major J. P. Gaines, Volunteer Aide-de-Camp. 

ENGINEER CORPS. 

Major J. L. Smith, Chief. 
Captain R. E. Lee. 
Lieutenant P. G. T. Beauregard. 
" Isaac I. Stevens. 

Z. B. Tower. 
G. W. Smith. 
" George B. McClellan. 

" J. G. Foster. 

ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT. 

Captain Benjamin Huger, Chief, with Siege Train. 
First Lieutenant P. V. Hagner. 
Second Lieutenant C. P. Stone. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. 

Major William TurubuU, Chief. 

Captain J. McClellan. 

Second Lieutenant George Thorn. 

Brevet Second Lieutenant E. L. F. Hardcastle. 

quartermaster's DEPARTMENT. 

Captain J. R. Irwin, Chief. 
" A. C. Myers. 
•^ Robert Allen. 
H. C. Wayne. 
" J. McKinstry 
" G. W. F. Wood. 



462 Composition^ etc. 



Captain J. Daniels. 
" O'Hara. 
" S. McGowan. 



BUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT. 



Captain J. B. Grayson, Chief. 
" T. P. Randle. 



PAY DEPARTMENT. 

Major E. Kirby, Chief. 
" A. Tan Buren. 
" A. G. Bennett. 

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. 

Surgeon-General Thomas Lawsou. 
Surgeon B. F. Harney. 
" R. S. Satterlee. 
C. S. Tripler. 
B. Randall. 
" J. M. Cuyler. 
Assistant-Surgeon A. F Suter. 
" " J. Simpson. 

D. C. DeLeon. 
" " H. n. Steiner. 

" " J. Simons. 

" " J. K. Barnes. 

" " L. H. Holden. 

" " C. C. Keency. 

" " J. F. Head. 

'• " J. F. Hammond. 

«' " J. M. Steiner. 



Composition^ etc. 4G3 



Assistant-Surgeon C. P. Deyerle. 

" " E. Swift. 

Surgeon J. M. Tyler, Volunteer. 

" McMillan, 
C. J. Clark. 
W. B. Halstead, 
Assistant-Surgeon R. Hagan, Volunteer. 

" " H. L. Wheaton, " 

Surgeon R. Ritchie, 1st Volunteers. 

" J. Barry, " 

" Edwards, " 

" L. W. Jordan, " 

" R. McSherry, 

" Roberts, " 



CORPS. 

COLONEL Harney's brigade. 

Detachment of 1st Light Dragoons, under Captain Kearny. 
" 2d " " Major Sumner. 

" 3d " " Major McReynolds. 



I.— BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WORTH'S DIVISION. 

1. COLONEL garland's BRIGADE. 

2d Regiment of Artillery, serving as Infantry. 
3d " " " 

4th " of Infantry. 

Duncan's Field Battery. 



464 Composition^ etc. 

2. COLONKL Clark's duioade. 

6th, Gth aud 8lh Regiments of Infantry. 
A Light Battery. 

II.— BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL TWIGGS'S DIVISIOX. 

1. BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL P. F. SMITIl'S BRIGADE. 

Rifle Regiment. 

1st Regiment of Artillery, serving as Infantry. 

3d Regiment of Infantry. 

Taylor's Light Battery. 

2. COLONEL Riley's brigade. 

4th Regiment of Artillery, serving as Infantry. 

1st Regiment of Infantry. 

Tth 

III. — MAJOR-GENERAL PILLOW'S DIVISION. 

1. BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. CADWALLADER's BRIGADE. 

Voltigeurs. 

11th and 14th Infantry. 

A Light Battery. 

2. BRIGADIER-GENERAL PIERCe's BRIGADE. 

9th, 12th, and 15th Infantry. 



Advance on the Cajjital. 465 

IV. -MAJOR-GENERAL QUITMAN'S DIVISION. 

1. BRIGADIER-GENERAL SHIELDS's BRIGADE. 

New York Volunteers. 
South Carolina Volunteers. 

2. LIEDTENANT-COtONEL WATSON'S BRIGADE. 

A Detachment of 2d Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
Detachment of United States' Marines. 

It has been seen that the last body of recruits 
(Pierce's brigade) arrived August 6, 184Y. The army 
commenced its advance, by divisions, on the Tth — 
Twiggs's division first, with Harney's brigade of caval- 
ry leading, and the siege train following. The other 
three divisions successively followed on the 8th, 9th, 
and 10th — each of the four divisions making but a half 
day's march at the beginning. So that no division 
(even the leading or rearmost one) was ever separated 
more than seven or eight miles from support, or rather 
half that distance, by means of a double movement — 
one division advancing and the other falling back. By 
similar means, three divisions might easily have been 
united in little more than two hours, in the case of a 
formidable attack upon an interior division. 
20* 



4:G6 Crossed the Rio Frio Range. 

This concatenation of the advancing corps was 
deemed prudent inasmuch as President Santa Anna 
had now had nearly four months (since the battle of 
Cerro Gordo) to collect and reorganize the entire means 
of the Republic for a last vigorous attempt to crush the 
invasion. A single error on our part — a single victory 
on his, might have effected that great end.* His vigi- 
lance and energy were unquestionable, and his powers 
of creating and organizing worthy of admiration. He 
was also great in administrative ability, and though 
not deficient in personal courage, he, on the field of 
battle, failed in quickness of perception and rapidity 
of combination. Hence his defeats. 

We had confidently expected to meet him, at the 
latest, in the defiles of Kio Frio ; but he preferred re- 
maining in coil about the city in the midst of formida- 
ble lines of defence both natural and artificial. 

August 10, the leading division, with which I 
marched, crossed the Rio Frio range of mountains, the 

* The Duke of Wellington, with whom the autobiographer was slightly 
acquainted, took quite an interest in the march of this army from Vera 
Cruz, and at every arrival caused its movements to be marked on a map. 
Admiring its triumphs up to the basin of Mexico, he now said to a com- 
mon friend : " Scott is lost. He has been carried away by successes. 
He can't take the city, and he can't fall back upon his base." 



First View of the Capital. 467 

higliest point, in the bed of the road between tlie 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

Descending the long western slope, a magnificent 
basin, with, near its centre, the object of all onr dreams 
and hopes — toils and dangers ; — once the gorgeous 
seat of the Montezumas, now the capital of a great 
Republic — first broke upon our enchanted view. The 
close surrounding lakes, sparkling under a bright sun, 
seemed, in the distance, pendant diamonds. The nu- 
merous steeples of great beauty and elevation, with 
Popocatepetl, ten thousand feet higher, apparently 
near enough to touch with the hand, filled the mind 
with relio-ious awe. Pecoverino; from the sublime 
trance, probably, not a man in the column failed to say 
to his neighbor or himself: That splendid city soon 
shall he ours! All were ready to suit the action to 
the word. 

Report No. 31. 

Hkadquarters of the Army, San Augustin, 
AcAPULCO Road, Nine Miles from Mexico, 
August 19, 1847. 

Sir: 

Leaving a competent garrison in Puebla, this army 
advanced upon the capital, as follows : Twiggs's divi- 



468 Close Reconnoitring. 

sion, preceded by Ilaraey's "brigade of cavab-y, the 
7th ; Quitman's division of volunteers, with a small 
detachment of United States' Marines, the 8tli ; 
Worth's division, the Utli, and Pillow's division, the 
10th — all in this month. On the 8th, I overtook, and 
then continued with the leading- division. 

The corps were, at no time, beyond live hours, or 
supporting distance, apart ; and on descending into tlie 
basin of the capital (seventy-five miles ft-om Pneljla) 
they became more closely approximated about tlie head 
of Lake Chalco, witli Lake Tescuco a little in front and 
to the right. 

On the 12th and 13th, we puslied reconnaissances 
upon the Penon, an isolated mound (eight miles from 
Mexico) of great height, strongly fortified to the top 
(three tiers of works) and flooded around the base by 
the season of rain and sluices from the lakes. Tliis 
mound close to tlie national road, commands the prin- 
cipal approach to the city from the east. Ko doubt it 
might have been carried, but at a great and dispropor- 
tionate loss, and I was anxious to spare the li^es of 
this gallant army for a general battle which I knew we 
had to win before capturing the city, or obtaining the 
great object of the campaign — a just and honorable peace. 



Resolved to Turn the Lakes. 469 

Another reconflaissance (wliicli I also accompanied) 
was directed the (13th) upon Mexicalcingo, to the left 
of the Pefion, a village at a fortified bridge across the 
outlet or canal, leading fi'om Lake Jochimilco to the 
capital — five miles from the latter. It might have 
been easy (masking the Pen on) to force this passage ; 
but on the other side of the bridge, we should have 
found ourselves four miles from this (San Angustin) 
road, on a narrow causeway, flg^nked on the right and 
left by water or boggy ground. 

Those difficulties, closely viewed, threw me back 
upon the project, long entertained, of turning the strong 
eastern defences of the city, by passing around south 
of Lake Chalco and Jochimilco, at the foot of the hills 
and mountains, so as to reach this point (San Augustin), 
and hence to manoeuvre, on hard ground, though 
much Ijroken, to the south and southwest of the capi- 
tal, which has been more or less mider our view, since 
the 10th instant. 

Accordingly, by a sudden inversion — Worth's divi- 
sion, with Harney's cavalry brigade, leading — we 
marched on the 15th instant. Pillow's and Quitman's 
divisions followed closely, and then Twiggs's division, 
which was left till the next day at Ayotla, in order to 



470 Arrival at San Augiistln. 

threaten the Pefioii and Mexicalcingo, and to deceive 
the enemy as lung as practicable. 

Twiggs, on the IGth, marching from Ayotla toward 
Chalco (six miles), met a corps of more than double 
his numbers — cavalry and infantry — under General 
Yalencia. Twiggs halted, deployed -into line, and by 
a few rounds from Captain Taylor's field battery, dis- 
persed the enemy, killing or wounding many men and 
horses. No other molestation has been experienced 
excejit a few random shots from guerilleros on the 
heights ; and the march of twenty-seven miles, over a 
route deemed impracticable by the enem}^, is now ac- 
complished by all the corps — thanks to their indomita- 
ble zeal and physical energy. 

Arriving here, the 18th, Worth's division and 
Harney's cavalry were pushed forward a league, to 
reconnoitre and to carry, or to mask, San Antonio on 
the direct road to the capital. This village was found 
strongly defended by field works, heavy guns, and a 
numerous garrison. It could only be turned by in- 
fantry, to the left, over a field of volcanic stones and 
lava ; for, to our right, the ground was boggy. 

It was soon ascertained by the daring engineers, 
Captain Mason and Lieutenants Stevens and Tower, 



New Reconnoitrings. 4T1 

that tlie point coiild only be approached bj the front, 
over a narrow causeway, flanked with wet ditches of 
great depth. Worth was ordered not to attack, but to 
threaten and to mask the place. 

The Urst shot fired from San Antonio (the 18th) killed 
Captain S. Thornton, 2d Dragoons, a gallant officer, 
who was cov^ering the oj^erations with his company. 

The same day, a reconnaissance was commenced to 
the left of San Augustin, first over difiicult grounds, 
and farther on, over the same field of volcanic matter 
which extends to the mountains, some five miles from 
San Antonio, toward Magdalena. Tliis reconnaissance 
was continued to-day by Captain Lee, assisted by 
Lieutenants Beauregard and Tower, all of the Engi- 
neers ; who were joined in the afternoon by Major 
Smith of the same corps. Other divisions coming up, 
Pillow's was advanced to make a practicable road for 
heavy artillery, and Twiggs's thrown farther in front, 
to cover that operation ; for, by the partial reconnais- 
sance of yesterday. Captain Lee discovered a large 
corps of observation in that direction, with a detach- 
ment of which his supports of cavalry and foot under 
Captain Kearny and Lieutenant-Colonel Graham, re- 
spectively, had a successful skirmish. 



472 Battle of Contreras. 

By three o'clock this afternoon, the advanced di- 
visions came to a point where the new road could only 
be continued under the direct fire of twenty-two pieces 
of the enemy's artillery (most of them of large calibre) 
placed in a strong intrenched camp to oppose our 
operations, and surrounded by every advantage of 
ground, besides immense bodies of cavalry and infantry 
hourly retinforced from the city, over an excellent road 
beyond the volcanic field, and consequently beyond the 
reach of our cavalry and artillery. 

Arriving on the ground an hour later, I found that 
Pillow's and Twiggs's divisions had advanced to dis- 
lodge the enemy, picking their way (all ofiicers on foot) 
along his front, and extending themselves toward the 
road from the city and the enemy's left. Captain 
Magruder's field battery, of 12 and 6-pounders, and 
Lieutenant Callender's battery of mountain howitzers 
and rockets, had also, with great difiiculty, been ad- 
vanced within range of the intrenched camp. These 
batteries, most gallantly served, sufiered much in the 
course of the afternoon, from the enemy's superior 
weight of metal. 

The battle, though mostly stationary, continued tp 
rage with great violence until nightfall. Brevet Briga- 



Battle Contimied. 473 

dier-General P. F. Smith's and Brevet Colonel Riley's 
brigades (Twiggs's division), supported by Brigadier- 
Generals Pierce's and Cadwallader's brigades (Pillow's 
division), were more than three hours under a heavy 
fire of artillery and musketry along the almost impassa- 
ble ravine in front and to the left of the intrenched camp. 

Besides the twenty-two pieces of artillery, the camp 
and ravine were defended closely by masses of infantry, 
and these again supported by clouds of cavalry at 
hand, hovering in view. Consequently no decided im- 
pression could be made by daylight on the enemy's 
most formidable position, because, independently of the 
difiiculty of the ravine, our infantry, unaccompanied 
by cavalry and artillery, could not advance in column 
without being mowed down by the grape and canister 
of the batteries, nor advance in line without being 
ridden over by the enemy's numerous cavalry. All 
our corps, however, including Magruder's and Callen- 
der's light batteries, not only maintained the exposed 
positions early gained, but all attempted charges upon 
them, respectively — particularly on Riley, twice closely 
engaged with cavalry in greatly superior numbers — 
were repulsed and punished. 

From an eminence, soon after arrivmg near the 



4:74 Battle Continued. 

scene, 1 observed the church and hamlet of Contreras 
(or Ansalda) on the road leading up from the capital 
through the intrenched camp to Magdalena, and see- 
ing, at the same time, the stream of reenforcements 
advancing by that road from the city, I ordered 
(through Major-General Pillow) Colonel Morgan with 
his regiment, the 15tli, till then held in reserve by 
Pillow, to move forward and to occupy Contreras (or 
Ansalda) — being persuaded, if occupied, it would ar- 
rest the enemy's reenforcements and ultimately decide 
the battle. 

Piley was already on the enemy's left, in advance 
of the hamlet, A few minutes later, Brigadier-General 
Shields with his volunteer brigade (New York and 
South Carolina regiments — Quitman's division) coming 
up under my orders from San Augustin, I directed 
Shields to follow and sustain Morgan. These corps, 
over the extreme difficulties of ground — partially cov- 
ered with a low forest — before described, reached Con- 
treras, and found Cadwallader's brigade in position, 
observing the formidable movement from the capital, 
and much needing the timely reenforcement. 

It was alrea V dark, and the cold rain had begun 
to fall in torrents upon our unsheltered troops ; for the 



Battle Continued. 475 

hamlet, tliongh a strong defensive position, could only 
hold the wounded men, and, unfortunately, the new 
regiments have little or nothing to eat in their haver- 
sacks. Wet, hungry, and without the possibility of 
sleep ; all our gallant corps, I learn, are full of confi- 
dence, and only wait for the last hour of darkness to 
gain the positions whence to storm and carry the ene- 
my's works. 

Of the seven officers despatched since about sun- 
down, from my position opposite to the enemy's centre, 
and on this side of the volcanic field — to communicate 
instructions to the hamlet — not one has succeeded in 
getting through these difficulties increased by darkness. 
They have all returned. But the gallant and inde- 
fatigable Cf ptain Lee, of the Engineers, who has been 
constantly with the operating forces, is (eleven o'clock 
p. M.,) just in from Shields, Smith, Cadwallader, etc., 
to report as above, and to ask that a powerful diversion 
be made against the centre of the intrenched camp 
toward morning. 

Brigadier-General Twiggs cut off as above, from 
the part of his division beyond the impracticable 
ground, and Captain Lee are gone, under my orders, 
to collect the forces remaining on this side with which 



476 Battle Continued. 

to make that diversion at about live o'clock in the 
morning. 

And here I will end this report, commenced at its 
date, and in another, continue the narrative of the 
great events which now impend. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

WINFIKLD SCOTT. 

Hon. W.m. L. Makcy, ISirreiary of War. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 

VICTORIES OF CONTREEAS — SAN ANTONIO — CHUKUBUSCO. 

Re^port No. 32. 

Headquarters of the Army, 
Tacubaya, at thf, gates of 
Mexico, August 28, 1847. 

Sir: 

My report, No. 31, commenced in the night of the 
19th instant, closed with the operations of the army on 
that day. 

The morning of the 20th opened with one of a series 
of unsurpassed achievements, all in view of the capital, 
and to which I shall give the general name — Battles of 
Mexico. 

In the night of the 19th, Brigadier-Generals Shields, 



478 Assault on Contreras Renewed. 

P. F. Smith, and Cadwallader, and Colonel Riley, with 
tlieir brigades, and the 15th Regiment, under Colonel 
Morgan, detached from Brigadier - General Pierce — 
found themselves in and al)()nt tlie important position 
— the village, hamlet or hacienda^ called indifferently, 
Contreras, Ansalda, San Geronimo — half a mile nearer 
to the citj than the enemy's intrenched camp, on the 
same road, toward the factory of Magdalena. 

That camp had been, unexpectedly, our formidable 
point of attack in the afternoon before, and we had 
now to take it, without the aid of cavalry or artillery, 
or to throw back our advanced corps upon the direct 
road from San Augustin to the cit}^, and thence force a 
passage through San Antonio. 

Accordingly, to meet contingencies, Major-General 
Worth was ordered to leave early in the morning of 
the 20th, one of his brigades to mask San Antonio, and 
to march with the other six miles, ma San Augustin, 
upon Contreras. A like destination was given to 
Major-General Quitman and his remaining brigade in 
San Augustin — replacing, for the moment, the garrison 
of that important depot with Harney's brigade of cav- 
alry, as horse could not pass over the intervening lava, 
etc., to reach the field of battle. 



Assault on Contreras. 479 

A diversion for an earlier hour (daylight) liad been 
arranged the night before, according to the suggestion 
of Brigadier-General P. F. Smith, received through the 
Engineer, Captain Lee, who conveyed my orders to onr 
troops remaining on the ground, opposite to the enemy's 
centre — the point for the diversion or a real attack, as 
circumstances might allow. 

Guided by Captain Lee, it proved the latter, under 
the command of Colonel Ransom of the 9th, having 
with him that regiment and some companies of three 
others — the 3d, 12th, and Rifles. 

Shields, the senior officer at the hamlet, having 
arrived in the night, after Smith had arranged with 
Cadwallader and Riley the plan of attack for the morn- 
ing, delicately waived interference ; but reserved to 
himself the double task of holding the hamlet with his 
two regiments (South Carolina and Kew York Yohin- 
teers) against ten times his numbers on the side of the 
city, including the slopes to his left, and in case the 
enemy's camp in his rear should be carried, to face 
about and cat oif the flying enemy. 

At three o'clock a. m. the great movement com- 
menced on the rear of the enemy's camp, Riley lead- 
ing, followed successively by Cadwallader's and Smith's 



480 The C'l.mp carried. 

brigades, the latter temporarily under the orders of 
Major Dimick of the 1st Artillery — the whole force 
being commanded by Smith, the senior in the general 
attack, and wliose arrangements, skill, and gallantry 
always challenge the highest admiration. 

The march was rendered tedious by the darlmess, 
rain, and mud ; but about sunrise, Hiley, conducted by 
Lieutenant Tower, Engineer, had reached an elevation 
behind the enemy, whence he precipitated his columns ; 
stormed the intrenchments, planted his several colors 
upon them, and carried the work^all in seventeen 
minutes. 

Conducted by Lieutenant Beauregard, Engineer, 
and Lieutenant Brooks of Twiggs's Staff — both of 
whom, like Lieutenant Tower, had, in the night, twice 
reconnoitred the ground — Cadwallader brought up to 
the general assault, two of his regiments — the Yol- 
tigeurs and the 11th ; and at the appointed time Colo- 
nel Ransom, with his temporary brigade, conducted by 
Captain Lee, Engineer, not only made the movement 
in front, to divert and to distract the enemy, but, after 
crossing the deep ravine, advanced, and poured into 
the works and upon the fugitives many volleys from 
his destructive musketry. 



Merit of Corjps. 481 

In the mean time Smitli's own brigade, under the 
temporary command of Major Dimick, following the 
movements of Eiley and Cadwallader, discovered, oppo- 
site to, and outside of the works, a long line of Mexican 
cavalry, drawn up as a support. Dimick having at the 
head of the brigade the company of Sappers and Miners, 
under Lieutenant G. W. Smith, Engineer, who had eon- 
ducted the march, was ordered by Brigadier-General 
Smith to form his line faced to the enemy, and in a 
charge, against a flank, routed the cavalry. 

Shields, too, by the wise disposition of his brigade 
and gallant activity, contributed much to the general 
results. He held masses of cavalry and infantry, sup- 
ported by artillery, in check below him, and captured 
hundreds, with one general (Mendoza), of those who fled 
from above. 

I doubt whether a more brilliant or decisive victory 
— taking into view ground, artiflcial defences, batteries, 
and the extreme disparity of numbers — without cavalry 
or artillery on our side — is to be found on record. In- 
(iluding all our corps directed against the intrenched 
camp, with Shields's brigade at the hamlet, we posi- 
tively did not number over four thousand five hundred 

rank and file ; and we knew by sight, and since, more 
21 



482 First Victory of the Day. 

certainly, by many captured documents and letters, 
that the enemy had actually engaged on the spot seven 
thousand men, with at least twelve thousand more hov- 
ering within sight and striking distance — both on the 
19th and 20th. All, not killed or captured, now fled 
with precipitation. 

Thus was the great victory of Contreras achieved ; 
one road to the capital opened ; seven hundred of the 
enemy killed ; eight hundred and thirteen prisoners, 
including, among eighty-eight officers, four generals ; 
besides many colors and standards ; twenty-two pieces 
of brass ordnance — half of large calibre; thousands of 
small arms and accoutrements ; an immense quantity 
of shot, shells, powder, and cartridges; seven hundred 
pack mules, many horses, etc., etc. — all in our hands. 

It is highly gratifying to find that, by skilful ar- 
rangement and rapidity of execution, our loss, in killed 
and wounded, did not exceed, on the spot, sixty — 
among the former the brave Captain Charles Hanson, 
of the 4th Infantry — not more distinguished for gal- 
lantry than for modesty, morals, and piety. Lieuten- 
ant J. P. Johnstone, 1st Artillery, serving with Ma- 
gruder's battery, a young officer of the highest promise, 
was killed the evening, before. 



Advance on San Antonio. 483 

One of tlie most pleasing incidents of tlie victory is 
the recapture, in their works, by Captain Drum, 4th 
Artillery, under Major Gardner, of the two brass 6- 
pomiders, taken from another company of the same 
reffiraent, thouirh without tlie loss of honor, at the 
glorious battle of Buena Vista — about which guns the 
whole regiment had mourned for so many long months ! 
Coming up a little later I had the happiness to join in 
the protracted cheers of the gallant 4th on the joyous 
event ; and, indeed, the whole army sympathizes in its 
just pride and exultation. 

The battle being won before the advancing brigades 
of Worth's and Quitman's divisions were in sight, both 
were ordered back to their late positions : — Worth, to 
attack San Antonio, in front, with his whole force, as 
soon as approached in the rear by Pillow's and Twiggs's 
divisions — moving from Contreras, through San Angel 
and Coyoacan. By carrying San Antonio, we knew 
that we should open another — a shorter and better road 
to the capital for our siege and other trains. 

Accordingly, the two advanced divisions and Sliields 
brigade marched from Contreras, under the immediate 
orders of Major-General Pillow, who was now joined 
by the gallant Brigadier-General Pierce of his division. 



484 Adrauce on the Convent of CJnirulusco. 

personally thrown out of activity, late the evening be- 
fore, by a severe hurt received from the fall of his 
liorse. 

After giving necessary orders on the iield, in the 
midst of prisoners and trophies, and sending instruc- 
tions to Harney's brigade of cavalry (left at San Augns- 
tin) to join me, I personally followed Pillow's com- 
mand. 

Arriving at Coyoacan, two miles by a cross road, 
from the rear of San Antonio, I first detached Captain 
Lee, Engineer, with Captain Kearny's troop, 1st Dra- 
goons, supported by the Rifle Regiment, under Major 
Loring, to reconnoitre that strong point; and next 
despatched Major-General Pillow, with one of his 
brigades (Cadwallader's), to make the attack upon it, 
in concert with Major-General Worth on the opposite 
side. 

At the same time, by another road to the left. 
Lieutenant Stevens of the Engineers, supported by 
Lieutenant G. W. Smith's company of sappers and 
miners, of the same corps, was sent to reconnoitre the 
strongly fortified church or convent of San Pablo, in 
the hamlet of Cliurubusco — one mile off. Twiggs with 
one of his brigades (Smith's — less the Rifles) and Cap- 



Enemy's Eight Wing Turned. 485 

tain Taylor's field battery, were ordered to follow and 
to attack the convent. Major Smith, senior Engineer, 
was despatched to concert witli Twiggs the mode and 
means of attack, and Twiggs's other brigade (Riley's) 
I soon ordered up to support him. 

IS'ext (but all in ten minutes) I sent Pierce (just 
able to keep the saddle) with his brigade (Pillow's 
division), conducted by Captain Lee, Engineer, by a 
third road a little farther to our left, to attack the ene- 
my's right and rear, in order to favor the movement 
upon the convent, and to cut off a retreat toward the 
capital. And finally. Shields, senior brigadier to 
Pierce, with the New York and South Carolina Yolun- 
teers (Quitman's division), was ordered to follow Pierce 
closely, and to take the command of our left wing 
All these movements were made with the utmost alac- 
rity by our gallant troops and commanders. 

Finding myself at Coyoacan, from which so many 
roads conveniently branched, without escort or reserve, 
I had to advance for safety close upon Twiggs's rear. 
The battle now raged from the right to the left of our 
whole line. 

Learning on the return of Captain Lee, that Shields 
in the rear of Churubusco was hard pressed, and in 



486 San Antonio Ajyproached. 

danger of being outflanked, if not overwhelmed, by 
greatly superior numbers, I immediately sent under 
Major Sumner, 2d Dragoons, the Rifles (Twiggs's re- 
serve) and Captain Sibley's troop, 2d Dragoons, then at 
liand, to support our left, guided by the same engineer. 

About an hour earlier, Worth had, by skilful and 
daring movements upon the front and right, turned 
and forced San Antonio — its garrison, no doubt, much 
shaken by our decisive victory at Contreras. 

His second brigade (Colonel Clarke's) conducted 
by Captain Mason, Engineer, assisted by Lieutenant 
Hardcastle, Topographical Engineer, turned to the 
left, and by a wide sweep came out upon the high 
road to tlie capital. At this point the heavy garrison 
(three thousand men) in retreat was, by Clarke, cut in 
the centre : one portion, the rear, driven upon Dolores, 
off to the right, and the other upon Churubusco, in the 
direct line of our operations. The first brigade (Colo- 
nel Garland's), same division, consisting of the 2d Ar- 
tillery, under Major Gait, the 3d Artillery, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Belton, and the 4th Infantry, com- 
manded by Major F. Lee, with Lieutenant-Colonel 
Duncan's field battery (temporarily) followed in pur- 
suit through the town, taking one general prisoner, 



Second Brilliant Event of the Day. 487 
the abandoned gnns (five pieces), rnnch ammunition, 
and other public property. 

The forcing of San Antonio was tbe second brilliant 

event of the day. 

Worth's division being soon reunited in hot pm'suit, 
he was joined by Major-General Pillow, who, march- 
ing from Coyoacan and discovering that San Antonio 
had been carried,- immediately turned to the left ac- 
cording to my instructions, and, though much impeded 
by ditches and swamps, hastened to the attack of 

Ohurubusco. 

The hamlet or scattered houses bearing this name, 
presented besides the fortified convent, a strong field- 
work itete de pant) with regular bastions and curtains 
at the head of a bridge over which the road passes 
from San Antonio to the capital. 

The whole remaining forces of Mexico-some twen- 
ty-seven thousand men-cavalry, artillery, and infan- 
try collected from every quarter-were now in, on the 
flanks, or within supporting distance of those works, 
and seemed resolved to make a last and desperate 
stand- for if beaten here, the feebler defences at the 
gates of the city-four miles off-could not, as was well 
known to both parties, delay the victors an hour. [0 



488 Convent and Bridge Ilothj Pressed. 

The capital of an ancient empire, now of a great 
republic ; or an early peace, the assailants were resolved 
to win. Not an American — and we were less than a third 
of the enemy's numbers — had a doubt as to the result. 

The fortified church or convent, hotly pressed by 
Twiggs, had already held out about an hour, when 
Worth and Pillow — the latter having M'itli him Cad- 
wallader's brigade — began to manceuvre closely upon 
the tete de jpont, with the convent at half gunshot to 
their left. Garland's brigade (Worth's division), to 
which had been added tlie light battalion under 
Lieutenant-Colonel C. F. Smith, continued to advance 
in front and under the lire of a long line of infantry off 
on the left of the bridge ; and Clarke of the same di- 
vision, directed his brigade along the road or close by 
its side. Two of Pillow's and Cadwallader's regiments, 
the 11th and 14th, supported and participated in this 
direct movement : the other (the voltigeurs) was left 
in reserve. Most of these corps — particularly Clarke's 
brigade — advancing perpendicularly, were made to 
suffer much by the fire of the tete de pont, and they 
would have suffered greatly more by flank attacks from 
tlte convent, but for the pressure of Twiggs on the 
other side of that work. 



Bridge Carried — Third Victory. 489 

This well-combined and daring movement at length 
reached the principal point of attack, and the formida- 
ble tete de jpooit was at once assaulted and carried by 
the bayonet. Its deep wet ditch was first gallantly 
crossed by the 8th and 5th Infantry, commanded re- 
spectively by Major Waite and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Martin Scott — followed closely by tlie 6th Infantry 
(same brigade), which had been so much exposed on 
the road — the 11th regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Graham, and the 14th commanded by Colonel Trous- 
dale, both of Cadwallader's brigade, Pillow's division. 
About the same time, the enemy in front of Garland, 
after a hot conflict of an hour and a half gave way, in 
a retreat toward the capital. 

The immediate results of this third signal triumph 
of the day were three field pieces, one hundred and 
ninety-two prisoners, much ammunition and two colors 
taken at the tete de jpont. 

Lieutenant I. F. Irons, 1st Artillery, aide-de-camp 
to Brigadier-General Cadwallader, a young officer of 
great merit and conspicuous in battle on several pre- 
vious occasions, received in front of the work, a mortal 
wound. (Since dead.) 

As the concurrent attack upon the convent favored, 
21* 



490 The Convent Ilolds Out. 

physically and morally, the assault upon the tete de 
jpont^ so reciprocally, no doubt, the fall of the latter 
contributed to the capture of the former. The two 
works were only some four hundred and fifty yards 
apart ; and as soon as we were in possession of the 
Ute de jpont^ a captured 4-pounder was turned and 
fired — first by Captain Larkin Smith, and next by 
Lieutenant Snelling, both of the 8th Infantry — several 
times upon the convent. In the same brief interval, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan (also of Worth's division) 
gallantly brought two of his guns to bear at a short 
range from the San Antonio road, upon the principal 
face of the work and on the tower of the church, which 
in the obstinate contest, had been often refilled with 
Bome of the best sharpshooters of the enemy. 

Finally, twenty minutes after the tete de jpont had 
been carried by Worth and Pillow, and at the end of 
a desperate conflict of two hours and a half, the church 
or convent — the citadel of the strong line of defence 
along the rivulet of Churubusco — yielded to Twiggs's 
division, and threw out on all sides signals of surren- 
der. The white flags, however, were not exhibited 
until the moment when the 3d infantry, under Captain 
Alexander, had cleared the way by fire and" bayonet, 



TTie Convent Carried. 491 

and had entered the work. Captain I, M. Smith and 
Lieutenant O, L. Shepherd, both of that regiment, with 
their companies, had the glorj of leading the assault. 
The former received the surrender, and Captain Alex- 
ander instantly hung out from the balcony the colors 
of the gallant 3d. Major Dimick with a part of the 
1st Artillery, serving as infantry, entered nearly 
abreast with the leading troops. 

Captain Taylor's field battery, attached to Twiggs's 
division, opened its effective fire at an early moment 
upon the outworks of the convent and the tower of its 
church. Exposed to the severest fire of the enemy, 
the captain, his officers and men, won universal ad- 
miration ; but at length much disabled in men and 
horses, the battery was by superior orders withdrawn 
from the action, thirty minutes before the surrender 
of the convent. 

Those corps, excepting Taylor's battery, belonged 
to the brigade of Brigadier-General P. F. Smith, who 
closely directed the whole attack in front M'ith his 
habitual coolness and ability ; while Riley's brigade — 
the 2d and 7th Infantry, under Captain T. Morris and 
Lieutenent-Colonel Plympton respectively — vigorously 
engaged the right of the work and part of its rear. 



492 Details — Fourth Victory. 

At the moment tlie Rifles, belonging to Smith's, were 
detached in support of Brigadier-General Shields's 
on our extreme left, and the 4th Artillery, acting as 
infantry, under Major Gardner, belonging to Riley's 
brigade, had been left it) charge of the camp, trophies, 
etc., at Contreras, Twiggs's division at Churubusco 
had thus been deprived of the services of two of its 
most gallant and effective regiments. 

The immediate results of this victoiy were : — the 
capture of seven field pieces, some anmiunition, one 
color, three generals, and one thousand two hundred 
and sixty-one prisoners, including other officers. 

Captains E. A. Capron and M. I. Burke, and Lieu- 
tenant S. Hoffman, all of the 1st Artillery, and Captain 
J. W. Anderson and Lieutenant Thomas Easley, both 
of the 2d Infantry — five officers of great merit — fell 
gallantly before this work. 

The capture of the enemy's citadel was the fourth 
great achievement of our arms in the same day. 

It has "been stated that some two hours and a half 
before, Pierce's, followed closely by the volunteer brigade 
— both under the command of Brigadier-General Shields 
— ^had been despatched to our left to turn the enemy's 
works ; — to prevent the escape of the garrisons and to 



Battle Behind Bridge and Convent. 49C 

oppose the extension of the enemy's numerous corps 
from the rear upon and around our left. 

Considering the inferior numbers of the two bri- 
gades, the objects of the movement were difficult to 
accomplish. Hence the reenforcement (the Rifles, etc.) 
sent forward a little later. 

In a winding march of a mile around to the right, 
this temporary division found itself on the edge of an 
open wet meadow, near the road from San Antonio to 
the capital, and in the presence of some four thousand 
of the enemy's infantry, a little in rear of Churubusco, 
on that road. Establishing the right at a strong build- 
ing. Shields extended his left parallel to the road, to 
outflank the enemy toward the capital. But the ene- 
my extending his right supported by three thousand 
cavalry more rapidly (being favored by better ground), 
in the same direction. Shields concentrated the division 
about a hamlet and determined to attack in front. 
The battle was long, hot and varied ; but ultimately, 
success crowned the zeal and gallantry of our troops, 
ably directed by their distinguished commander, Briga- 
dier-General Shields. The 9th, 12th, and 15th Regi- 
ments, under Colonel Ransom, Captain Wood, and 
Colonel Morgan respectively, of Pierce's brigade (Pil- 



494 Fifth Yictoi^y— Details. 

low's division), and the Kew York and Soutli Caro- 
lina Yolunteers, under Colonels Burnett and Butler, 
respectively, of Sliields's own brigade (Quitman's 
division), together with the mountain howitzer battery, 
now under Lieutenant Reno of the Ordnance Corps, 
all shared in the glory of this action — our ffth \'ictory 
in the same day. 

Brigadier-General Pierce, from the hurt of the even- 
ing before — under pain and exhaustion — fainted in the 
action. Several other changes in command occurred 
on this field. Thus Colonel Morgan being severely 
wounded, the command of the 15th Infantry devolved 
on Lieutenant-Colonel Howard ; Colonel Burnett re- 
ceiving a like wound, the command of the NeAV York 
Yolunteers fell to Lieutenant-Colonel Baxter ; and, on 
the fall of the lamented Colonel P. M. Butler — earlier 
badly wounded, but continuing to lead nobly in the 
hottest part of the battle — the command of the South 
Carolina Yolunteers devolved — first, on Lieutenant- 
Colonel Dickinson, who being severely wounded (as 
before in the siege of Yera Cruz), the regiment ulti- 
mately fell under the orders of Major Gladden. 

Lieutenants David Adams and W. R. Williams of 
the same corps ; Captain Augustus Quarles and Lieu- 



Brilliant Cavalry Charge. 495 

tenant J. B. Goodman of the 15tli, and Lieutenant E. 
Chandler, ]N^ew York Yolunteers — all gallant officers, 
nobly fell in the same action. 

Shields took three hundred and eighty prisoners, 
including officers ; and it cannot be doubted that the 
rage of the conflict between him and the enemy, just 
in the rear of the tete de jpont and the convent, had 
some influence on the surrender of those formidable 
defences. 

As soon as the tete de pont was carried, the greater 
part of Worth's and Pillow's forces passed that bridge in 
rapid pursuit of the flying enemy. These distinguished 
generals, coming up with Brigadier-General Shields, 
now also victorious, the three continued to press upon 
the fugitives to within a mile and a half of the capital. 
Here, Colonel Harney, with a small part of his brigade 
of cavalry, rapidly passed to the front, and charged tlie 
enemy up to the nearest gate. 

The cavalry charge was headed by Captain Kearny, 
of the 1st Dragoons, having in squadron with his own 
troop, that of Captain McReynolds of the 3d — making the 
usual escort to general headquarters ; but, being early 
in the day detached for general service, was now under 
Colonel Harney's orders. The gallant captain not 



40ti General Results. 

hearing tlie recall^ that had been sounded, dashed up to 
the San Antonio srate, sabring in In's war all who 
res-isted. Of the seven offieei*s of the squadron, Kearny 
lost his left arm ; McEeynolds and Lieutenant Lorimer 
Graham were both severely wounded, and Lieutenant 
K, S. Ewell, who succeeded to the command of the 
rseoit, had two horses killed under him. Major F. D. 
Mills, of the loth infantry, a volunteer in this charge, 
was killed at the gate. 

So terminated the series of events which I have but 
feebly presented. My thanks were treely poured out 
on the different fields — to the abilities and science of 
generals and other otiicers — to the zeal and prowess of 
all — the rank and file included. But a reward in- 
finitely higher — the applause of a grateful country aud^ 
Government — will. I cannot doubt, be accorded, in due 
time, to so much merit of every sort, displayed by this 
glorious army, which has now overcome all difiiculties 
— distance, climate, ground, fortifications, numbers. 

It has in a single day, in many battles, as often 
defeated tliirty-two thousand men ; made about three 
thousand prisoners, including eight generals (two of 
them ex-presidents) and two hundred and five other 
officers ; killed or wounded four thousand of all ranks 



General Results Continued. 497 

— besides entire corps dispersed and dissolved ; cap- 
tured thirty-seven pieces of ordnance^ — more tlian treb- 
ling our siege train and field batteries — with a large 
number of small arms, a full supply of ammunition of 
everj' kind, etc., etc. 

These great results have overwhelmed the enemy. 
Our loss amounts to one thousand and fifty-three — 
hilled^ one hundred and thirty-nine, including sixteen 
oflicers ; loounded^ eight hundred and seventy-six, with 
sixty oflicers. The greater number of the dead and 
disabled were of the highest worth. Those under treat- 
ment, thanks to our very able medical oflicers, are gen- 
erally doing well. 

I regret having been obliged, on the 20th, to leave 
Major-General Quitman, an able commander, with a 
part of his division — the fine 2d Pennsylvania Yolun- 
teers, and the veteran detachment of United States' 
Marines — at our important depot, San Augustin. It 
was there that I had placed our sick and wounded; 
the siege, supply, and baggage trains. If these had 
been lost, the army would have been driven almost to 
despair ; and considering the enemy's very great excess 
of numbers, and the many approaches to the depot, it 
might well have become, emphatically, thej>ost of honor. 



498 Politic ^Forbearance. 

After so many victories, we might, with Liit little 
additional loss, have occupied the capital the same 
evening. [?] But Mr. Trist, commissioner, etc., as 
well as myself, had been admonished by the best 
friends of peace — intelligent neutrals and some Amer- 
ican residents — against precipitation ; lest, by wanton- 
ly dri%dng away the government and others — dishonored 
— we might scatter the elements of peace, excite a spirit 
of national desperation, and thus indefinitely postpone 
the hope of accommodation.* 

Deeply impressed with this danger, and remember- 
ing our mission — to conquer a peace — the army very 
cheertnlly sacrificed to patriotism — to the great wisli 
and want of our country — the eclat that would have 
followed an entrance — sword in hand — into a great 

* There were other reasons such as are alhided to in my report of tlic 
capture of Vera Cruz. K we had proceeded to assault the city oy day- 
light our loss would have been dangerously great, and if a little later in 
the night, the slain, on the other side, including men, women, and children, 
would have been frightful, because if the assailants stopped to make pris- 
oners before occupying all the strongholds, they would soon become prison- 
ers themselves. Other atrocities, by the victors, are, in such cases, inev- 
itable. Pillage always follows, and seems authorized by the usage of war. 
Hence I promised (Septem i^r 13), at the gates of Mexico, a contribution 
in lieu of pillage, in order tv. avoid the horrors in question, and the conse- 
quent loss of discipline and e iciency. 



Ar7n Istice — Negotiations. 499 

capital. Willing to leave something to tliis republic — 
of no immediate value to us — on which to rest her 
pride, and to recover temper — I halted our victorious 
corps at the gates of the city (at least for a time), and 
have them now cantoned in the neighboring villages, 
where thej are well sheltered and supplied with all 
necessaries. 

On the morning of the 21st, being about to take up 
battering or assaulting positions, to authorize me to 
summon the city to sm-render, or to sign an armistice 
with a pledge to enter at once into negotiations for 
peace — a mission came out to propose a truce. Keject- 
ing its terms, I despatched my contemplated note to 
President Santa Anna — omitting the summons. The 
22d, commissioners were appointed by the command- 
ers of the two armies ; the armistice was signed the 
23d, and ratifications exchanged the 24:th. 

All matters in dispute between the two govern- 
ments have been thus happily turned over to their 
plenipotentiaries, who have now had several conferen- 
ces, and with, I think, some hope of signing a treaty 
of peace. ' 

There will be transmitted to the Adjutant-General 
reports from divisions, brigades, etc., on the foregoing 



500 Commendations. 

operations, to wliieli I must refer, witli my hearty con- 
currence in the just applause bestowed on corps and 
individuals by their respective commanders. I have 
been able — this report being necessarily a summary — 
to bring out, comparatively, but little of individual 
merit not lying directly in the way of the narrative. 
Thus I doubt whether I have, in express terms, given 
my approbation and applause to the commanders of 
divisions and independent brigades; but left their fame 
upon higher grounds — the simple record of their great 
deeds and the brilliant results.'^ 

To the staff, both general and personal, attached 
to general headquarters, I was again under high obli- 
gations for services in the field, as always in the bureaux. 
I add their names, etc. : Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, 
Acting Inspector-General ; Major J. L. Smith, Captain 
R. E. Lee (as distinguished for felicitous execution as 



* Litera scripta manet. In this edition of my reports of battles, etc., 
I, of course, expunge none of the praises therein bestowed on certain divis- 
ion and brigade commanders ; but as a caution to future generals- in-chief 
I must say I soon had abundant reason to know, that I had in haste too 
confidently relied upon the partial statements of several of those command- 
ers respecting their individual skill and prowess, and the merits of a few 
of their favorites — subordinates. I except from this remark. Generals 
Quitman, Shields, P. F. Smith, N. S. Clarke, Riley, and Cadwallader. 



Individuals Enumerated. 501 

for science and daring), Captain Mason, Lieutenants 
Stevens, Beauregard, Tower, G. W, Smith, George B. 
McClellan, and Foster — all of tlie Engineers; Major 
Turnbnll, Captain J. McClellan, and Lieutenant Hard- 
castle, Topographical Engineers ; Captain Huger and 
Lieutenant Hagner, of the Ordnance; Captains Irwin 
and Wayne, of the Quartermaster's Department; Cap- 
tain Grajson, of the Commissariat ; Surgeon-General 
Lawson, in his particular department ; Captain H. L. 
Scott, Acting Adjatant-General ; Lieutenant T. "Wil- 
liams, Aide-de-Camp, and Lieutenant Lay, Military 
Secretary. 

Lieutenant Schuyler Hamilton,* another aide-de- 
camp, had a week before been thrown out of activity 
by a severe wound received in a successful charge of 

* This gallant, intelligent officer being sent with a detachment of cav- 
alry from Chalco to an iron foundery, some fifteen miles off, beyond Mira 
Flores, to make contingent arrangements for shots and shells — we having 
brought up but few of either, from the want of road power — returning, 
fell into an ambuscade, and though he cut his way through, was, while 
slaying one man in his front, pierced through the body with a lance, by 
another, and thus thrown hors de combat for the remainder of the cam- 
paign. In 1861, he, as a private, was in one of the first regiments of vol- 
unteers that hastened to the defence of Washington ; — again became one 
of my aides-de-camp, and, in succession, a distinguished brigadier and 
major-general of volunteers in the Southwest. 



502 Enumeration of Individuals 

cavalry against cavalry, and four times his numbers ; 
but on the 20th, I had the valuable services, as volun- 
teer aids, of Majors Kirby and Yan Buren, of the Pay 
Department, always eager for activity and distinction, 
and of a third, the gallant Major J. P. Gaines, of the 
Kentucky Volunteers. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, Secretary of War. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

AEMISTICE— NEGOTIATIONS— HOSTILITIES RENEWED— BAT- 
TLE OF MOLINOS DEL KEY— CAPTURE OF CHAPULTEPEO 
AND MEXICO. 

Report No. 33. 

Headquarters of the Army, 
Tactjbaya, near Mexico, 
September 11, 1847. 

Sir: 

I have heretofore reported that I had, August 24, 
concluded an armistice with President Santa Anna, 
which was promptly followed by meetings between Mr. 
Trist and Mexican commissioners appointed to treat 

of peace. 

Negotiations were actively continued with, as was 



504 Bad Faith of the Enemy. 

understood, some prospect of a successful result up to 
the 2d instant, when our commissioner handed in his 
ultimatum (on boundaries), and the negotiators ad- 
journed to meet again on tlie 6th. 

Some infractions of the truce in respect to our sup- 
plies from the city, were earlier committed, followed 
by apologies on the part of the enemy. These vexations 
I was willing to put down to the imbecility of the gov- 
ernment, and waived any pointed demands of repara- 
tion while any hope remained of a satisfactory termina- 
tion of the war. But on the 5th, and more fully on the 
6th, I learned that as soon as the ultimatum had bee^ 
considered in a grand council of ministers and others, 
President Santa Anna on the 4:th or 5th, without 
giving me the slightest notice, actively recommenced 
strengthening the military defences of the city, in gross 
violation of the 3d article of tiie armistice. 

On that information, wliich has since received the 
fullest verification, I addressed to him my note of the 
6th. His reply, dated the same day, received the next 
morning, was absolutely and notoriously false, both in 
recrimination and explanation. I enclose copies of both 
papers, and have had no subsequent correspondence 
with the enemy. 



Armistice Denounced — Hostilities. 505 

Being delayed by the terms of the armistice more 
than two weeks, we had now, late on the 7th, to begin 
to reconnoitre the different approaches to the city, 
within our reach, before I could lay down any defini- 
tive plan of attack. 

The same afternoon a large body of the enemy was 
discovered hovering about the Molinos del Rey^ within 
a mile and a third of this village, where I am quartered 
with the general stafi' and Worth's division. 

It might have been supposed that an attack upon 
us was intended ; but knowing the great value to the 
enemy of those mills {Molinos del Rey)^ containing a 
cannon foundery, with a large deposite of powder in 
Casa Mata near them ; and having heard two days 
before that many church bells had been sent out to be 
cast into guns, the enemy's movement was easily un- 
derstood, and I resolved at once to drive him early the 
next morning, to seize the powder, and to destroy the 
foundery. 

Another motive for this decision — leaving the gen- 
eral plan of attack upon the city for full reconnaissance 
- — was, that we knew our recent captures had left the 
enemy not a fourth of the guns necessary to arm, all at 

the same time, the strong works at each of the eight 
22 



506 Battle of Molino del Bey. 

city gates; and we could not cut the communication 
between the foundery and the capital without firet 
taking the formidable castle on the heights of Cliapul- 
tepec, Avhich overlooked both and stood between. 

For this difficult operation we were not entirely 
ready, and moreover we might altogether neglect the 
castle, if, as we then hoped, our reconnaissajices should 
prove that the distant southern approaches to the city 
were more eligible than this southwestern one. 

Hence the decision promptly taken, the execution 
of whicli was assigned to Brevet Major-General Worth, 
whose division was reiinforced with Cadwallader's bri- 
gade of Pillow's division, three squadrons of dragoons 
under Major Sumner, and some heavy guns of the siege 
train under Captain Huger of the Ordnance, and Cap- 
tain Drum of the ttth Artillery — two officers of the 
liighest merit. 

For the decisive and brilliant results, I beg to refer 
to the report of the immediate commander, Major- 
General Worth, in whose commendations of tlie gallant 
officers and men — dead and living — ^I heartily concur ; 
having witnessed, but with little interference, their 
noble devotion to fame and to country. 

The enemy having several times reenforced his line, 



Victory. 607 

and the action soon becoming mucli more general than 
I had expected, I called up, from the distance of three 
miles, fii'st Major-General Pillow, with his remaining 
brigade (Pierce's), and next Kiley's brigade of Twiggs's 
division — leaving his other brigade (Smith's) in obser- 
vation at San Angel. Those corps approached with 
zeal and rapidity ; but the battle was won just as Brig- 
adier-General Pierce reached the ground, and had in- 
terposed his corps between Garland's brigade (Worth's 
division) and the retreating enemy. 

The accompanying report mentions, with just com- 
mendation, two of my volunteer aids — Major Kirby, 
Paymaster, and Major Gaines, of the Kentucky Volun- 
teers. I also had tlie valuable services, on the same 
field, of several other officers of my staff, general and 
personal : Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, Acting In- 
spector-General ; Captain R. E. Lee, Engineer ; Captain 
Irwin, Chief Quartermaster; Captain Grayson, Chief 
Commissary; Captain H. L. Scott, Acting Adjutant- 
General ; Lieutenant Williams, Aide-de-Camp ; and 
Lieutenant Lay, Military Secretary. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Hon. Wii. L. Marcy, Secretary of War. 



608 Reconnaissances. 



Report No, 34. 

Headquarteus or TirE Ahmy, 
National Palace of Mexico, 
September 18, 1847. 

Sir: 

At tlie end of another series of arduous and bril- 
liant operations, of more tlum forty-eiglit hours' con- 
tinuance, this glorious army hoisted, on the morning of 
the 14th, the colors of the United States on the walls 
of this palace. 

The victory of the 8th, at the Molinos del Hey, was 
followed by daring reconnaissances on the part of 
our distinguished engineers — Captain Lee, Lieutenants 
Beam'egard, Stevens and Tower — Major Smith, senior, 
being sick, and Captain Mason, third in rank, wound- 
ed. Their operations were directed principally to the 
south — toward the gates of the Piedad, San Angel, 
(Nino Perdido), San Antonio, and the Paseo de la 
Yiga. 

This city stands on a slight swell of ground, near 
the centre of an irregular basin, and is girdled with a 
ditch in its greater extent — a navigable canal of great 
breadth and depth — very difficult to bridge .in the 



ApproacJies Difficult. 509 

presence of an enemy, and serving at once for drain- 
age, custom-house purposes, and military defence ; 
leaving eiglit entrances or gates, over arches — each of 
which we found defended by a system of strong works, 
that seemed to require nothing but some men and 
guns to be impregnable. 

Outside and within the cross-fires of those gates, we 
found to the south other obstacles but little less for- 
midable. All the approaches near the city are over 
elevated causeways, cut in many places (to oppose us), 
and flanked on both sides by ditches, also of unusual 
dimensions. The numerous cross-roads are flanked in 
like manner, having bridges at the intersections, re- 
cently broken. The meadows thus checkered, are, 
moreover, in many spots, under water or marshy ; for, 
it will be remembered, we were in the midst of the wet 
season, though with less rain than usual, and we could 
not wait for the fall of the neighboring lakes and the 
consequent drainage of the wet grounds at the edge of 
the city — the lowest in the whole basin. 

After a close personal survey of the southern gates, 

covered by Pillow's division and Riley's brigade of 

Twiggs's — with four times our numbers conceutrated 

in our immediate front — I determined, on the 11th, 

k 



510 Feint Against Southern Gate. 

to avoid that network of obstacle, and to seek, by a 
sudden inversion to tlie southwest and west, less un- 
favorable approaches. 

To economize the lives of oui* gallant officers and 
men, as well as to insure success, it became iudispensa- 
blc that this resolution should be long masked from 
the enemy ; and again, that the new movement when 
discovered, should be mistaken for a feint, and the old 
as indicating our true and ultimate point of attack. 

Accordingly, on the spot, the 11th, I ordered Quit- 
man's division from Coyoacan, to join Pillow hy day- 
light before the southern gates, and then that the two 
major-generals with their divisions, should hy night 
proceed (two miles) to join me at Tacubaya, where I 
was quartered with Worth's division. Twiggs, with 
Riley's brigade and Captains Taylor's and Steptoe's 
field batteries — -.the latter of 12-pounders — was left in 
front of those gates to manoeuvre, to threaten, or to 
make false attacks, in order to occupy and deceive the 
enemy. Twiggs's other brigade (Smith's) was left at 
supporting distance in the rear at San Angel, till the 
morning of the 13th, and also to support our general 
depot at Mixcoac. The stratagem against the south 
WHS admirably executed throughout tlie 12th and down 



Attack on Chapultejpec. 511 

to the afternoon of the 13th, when it was too late for 
the enemy to recover from the effects of his delusion. 

The first step in the new movement was to carry 
Chapultepec, a natural and isolated mound of great 
elevation, strongly fortified at its base, on its acclivi- 
ties and heights. Besides a numerous garrison, here 
was the military college of the republic, with a large 
number of sub-lieutenants and other students. Those 
works were within direct gunshot of the village of 
Tacubaya, and, until carried, we could not approach 
the city on the west without making a circuit too wide 
and too hazardous. 

In the course of the same night (that of the 11th), 
heavy batteries within easy ranges were established. 
E'o. 1, on our right, under the command of Captain 
Drum, 4th Artillery (relieved the next day for some 
hours by Lieutenant Andrews of the 3d), and JSTo. 2, 
commanded by Lieutenant Hagner, Ordnance — both 
supported by Quitman's division. IN^os. 3 and 4, on 
the opposite side, supported by Pillow's division, were 
commanded, the former by Captain Brooks and Lieu- 
tenant S. S. Anderson, 2d Artillery, alternately, and 
the latter by Lieutenant Stone, Ordnance. The bat- 
teries were traced by Captain linger. Ordnance, and 



612 Concentration of Forces. 

Captain Lee, Engineer, and constructed by tliem with 
the able assistance of the young officers of those corps 
and of the artillery. 

To prepare for an assault, it was foreseen that the 
play of the batteries might run into the second day ; 
but recent captures had not only trebled our siege 
pieces, but also our ammunition ; and we knew tliat 
we should greatly augment both by carrying the place. 
I was, therefore, in no haste in ordering an assault be- 
fore the works w^ere well crippled by our missiles. 

The bombardment and cannonade, under the direc- 
tion of Captain Huger, were commenced early in the 
morning of the 12th. Before nightfall, w^hich neces- 
sarily stopped our batteries, w:e had perceived that a 
good impression had been made on the castle and its 
outw^orks, and that a large body of the enemy had re- 
mained outside, toward the city, from an early hour, 
to avoid our lire, but to be at hand on its cessation in 
order to recinforce the garrison against an assault. The 
same outside force was discovered tlie next morning 
after our batteries had reopened \\\>o\\ the castle, by 
which we again reduced its garrison to the minimum 
needed for the guns. 

Pillow and Quitman had been in position since 



All Ready for the Assault. 513 

early in the night of the 11th. Major- General Worth 
was now ordered to hold liis division in reserve, near 
the foundery, to support Pillow ; and Brigadier-General 
Smith, of Twiggs's division, had just arrived with his 
brigade from Piedad (two miles), to support Quitman. 
Twiggs's guns before the southern gates, again re- 
minded us, as the day before, that he, with Riley's 
brigade and Taylor's and Steptoe's batteries, was in 
activity threatening the southern gates, and thus hold- 
ing a great part of the Mexican army on the defensive. 

"Worth's division furnished Pillow's attack with an 
assaulting party of some two hundi'ed and iifty volun- 
teer officers and men, under Captain McKenzie, of the 
2d Artillery ; and Twiggs's division supplied a similar 
one, commanded by Captain Casey, 2d Infantry, to 
Quitman. Each of these little columns was furnished 
with scaling ladders. 

The signal I had appointed for the attack was the 
momentary cessation of fire on the part of our heavy 
batteries. About eight o'clock in the morning of the 
13th, judging that the time had arrived, by the effect 
of the missiles we had thrown, I sent an aide-de-camp 
to Pillow, and another to Quitman, with notice that 
the concerted signal was about to be given. Both 



514 Outworlts Carried. 

columns now advanced witli an alacrity tliat gave 
assurance of prompt success. The batteries, seizing 
opportunities, threw shots and shells upon the enemy 
over the heads of our men with good effect, particularl}' 
at every attempt to recinforce the works from without 
to meet our assault. 

Major-General Pillow's approach on the west side, 
lay through an open grove filled with sharpshooters, 
who were speedily dislodged : when, being up with the 
front of the attack, and emerging into open space at 
the foot of a rocky acclivity, that gallant leader was 
struck down by an agonizing wound. The immediate 
command devolved on Brigadier-General Cadwallader, 
in the absence of the senior brigadier (Pierce) of the 
same division — an invalid since the events of August 
19. On a previous call of Pillow, Worth had just sent 
him a reenforcement — Colonel Clarke's brigade. 

The broken acclivity was still to be ascended, and 
a strong redoubt, midway, to be carried, before reach- 
ing the castle on the heights. The advance of ou' 
brave men, led by brave officers, though necessar 
slow, was unwavering, over rocks, chasms, and mine., 
and under the hottest fire of cannon and musketry. 
The redoubt now yielded to resistless valor, and the 



Ditches Entered — Ladders. 615 

shouts that followed announced to the castle the fate 
that impended. The enemy were steadily driven from 
shelter to shelter. The retreat allowed not time to fire 
a single mine, without the certainty of blowing up 
friend and foe. Those who, at a distance, attempted 
to apply matches to the long trains, were shot down by 
our men. There was death below, as well as above 
ground. At length the ditch and wall of the main 
work were reached ; the scaling ladders were brought 
up and planted by the storming parties ; some of the 
daring spirits, first in the assault, were cast down — 
killed or wounded ; but a lodgment was soon made ; 
streams of heroes followed ; all opposition was over- 
come, and several of our regimental colors flung out 
from the upper walls, amidst long-continued shouts 
and cheers, which sent dismay into the capital. No 
scene could have been more animating or glorious. 

Major-General Quitman, nobly supported by Brig- 
adier-Generals Shields and Smith (P. F.), his other 
officers and men, was up with the part assigned him. 
Simultaneously with the movement on the west, he had 
gallantly approached the southeast of the same works 
over a causeway with cuts and batteries, and defended 
by an army strongly posted outside, to the east of the 



516 Victory. 

works. Those formidable obstacles Quitman had to 
face, Avith but little shelter for his troops or space for 
manoeuvring. Deep ditches, flanking the causeway, 
made it difficult to cross on either side into the adjoin- 
ing meadows, and these again were intersected by other 
ditches. Smith and his brigade had been early thrown 
out to make a sweep to the right, iu order to present a 
front against the enemy's line (outside), and to turn two 
intervening batteries, near the foot of Chapultepec. 

This movement was also intended to support Quit- 
man's storming parties, both on the causeway. The 
first of these, furnished by Twiggs's division, was com- 
manded in succession by Captain Casey, 2d Infantry, 
and Captain Paul, 7tli Infantry, after Casey had been 
severely wounded ; and the second, originally under 
the gallant Major Twiggs, Marine Corps, kille.d, and 
then Captain Miller, 2d Pennsylvania Yolunteers. The 
storming party, now commanded by Captain Paul, 
seconded by Captain Eoberts of the Rifles, Lieutenant 
Stewart, and others of the same regiment. Smith's bri- 
gade, carried the two batteries in the road, took some 
guns, with many prisoners, and drove the enemy posted 
behind in support. The l^ew York and South Carolina 
Volunteers (Shields's brigade), and the 2d Pennsylvania 



Details. 517 

Volunteers, all on the left of Quitman's line, together 
with portions of his storming parties, crossed the mead- 
ows in front under a heavy fire, and entered the outer 
enclosure of Chapultepec just in time to join in the final 
assault from the west. 

Besides Major-Generals Pillow and Quitman, Brig- 
adier-Generals Shields, Smith, and Cadwallader, the 
following are the ofiicers and corps most distinguished 
in those brilliant operations : The Yoltigeur regiment, 
in two detachments, commanded respectively by Colo- 
nel Andrews and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Johnston 
— the latter mostly in the lead, accompanied by Major 
Caldwell ; Captains Barnard and C. J. Biddle, of the 
same regiment — the former the first to plant a regimen- 
tal color, and the latter among the first in the assault ; 
— the storming party of Worth's division, under Cap- 
tain McKenzie, 2d Artillery, with Lieutenant Selden, 
8th Infantry, early on the ladder and badly wounded ; 
Lieutenant Armistead, 6th Infantry, the first to leap 
into the ditch to plant a ladder ; Lieutenant Rogers, 
of the 4th, and J. P. Smith, of the 5th Infantry — both 
mortally wounded; the 9th Infantry, under Colonel 
Ransom, who was killed while gallantly leading that 
gallant regiment ; the IStli Infantry, under Lieutenant- 



518 Chajpultepec Carried. 

Colonel Howard and Major Woods, with Captain Chase, 
whose company gallantly eari'ied the redoubt, midway 
up the acclivity ; — Colonel Clarke's brigade (Worth's 
division), consisting of the 5th, 8th, and part of the 
6th regiments of infantry, commanded respectively by 
Captain Chapman, Major Montgomery, and Lieutenant 
Edward Johnson — the latter specially noticed — with 
Lieutenants Longstreet (badly wounded, advancing, 
colors in hand), Pickett, and Merchant — the last three 
of the 8th Infantry ; — portions of the United States' 
Marines, New York, South Carolina, and 2d Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, which, delayed with their division 
(Quitman's) by the hot engagement below, arrived just 
in time to participate in the assault of the heights ; 
particularly a detachment, under Lieutenant Reed, 
New York Volunteers, consisting of a company of the 
same, with one of marines ; and another detachment, 
a portion of the storming party (Twiggs's division, 
serving with Quitman), under Lieutenant Steele, 2d 
Infantry, after the fall of Lieutenant Gantt, Yth In- 
fantry. 

In this connection, it is but just to recall the deci- 
sive effect of the heavy batteries, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, 
commanded by those excellent officers, Captain Drum, 



Details. 519 

4:tli Artillery, assisted by Lieutenants Benjamin and 
Porter of liis own company ; Captain Brooks and Lieu- 
tenant Anderson, 2d Artillery, assisted by Lieutenant 
Russell, 4tli Infantry, a volunteer ; Lieutenants Hagner 
and Stone, of the Ordnance, and Lieutenant Andrews, 
3d Artillery — the whole superintended by Captain 
Huger, Chief of Ordnance with this array, an officer 
distinguished by eYerj kind of merit. The Mountain 
Hoxdtzer Battery, under Lieutenant Heno, of the Ord- 
nance, deserves also to be particularly mentioned. 
Attached to the Yoltigeurs, it followed the movements 
of that regiment, and again won applause. 

In adding to the list of individuals of conspicuous 
merit, I must limit myself to a few of the many names 
which might be enumerated: — Captain Hooker, Assist- 
ant Adjutant-General, who won special applause, suc- 
cessively, in the staff of Pillow and Cadwallader ; Lieu- 
tenant Lovell, 4th Artillery (wounded), chief of Quit- 
man's staff; Captain Page, Assistant Adjutant-General 
(wounded), and Lieutenant Hammond, 3d Artillery, 
both of Shields's staff, and Lieutenant Yan Dorn (7th 
Infantry), Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier-General Smith. 

Those operations all occurred on the west, south- 
east, and heights of Chapultepec. To the north, and 



520 Details. 

at the base of the mound, inaccessible on that side, the 
11th Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hebert, the 
14th, under Colonel Trousdale, and Captain Magruder's 
field battery, 1st Artillery, one section advanced under 
Lieutenant Jackson, all of Pillow's division, had, at 
the same time, some spirited affairs against superior 
numbers, driving the enemy from a battery in the road, 
and capturing a gun. In these, the oflScers and corps 
named gained merited praise. Colonel Trousdale, the 
commander, though twice wounded, continued on duty 
until the heights were carried. 

Early in the morning of the 13th, I repeated the 
orders of the night before to Major-General Worth, to 
be Avith his division at hand to support the movement 
of Major-General Pillow from our left. The latter 
seems soon to have called for tliat entire division, 
standing momentarily in reserve, and Worth sent him 
Colonel Clarke's brigade. The caU, if not unnecessary, 
was at least, from the circumstances, unknown to me 
at the time; for, soon observing that the very large 
body of the enemy, in the road in front of Major-Gen- 
eral Quitman's right, was receiving reenforcements 
from the city — less than a mile and a half to the east — 
I. sent instructions to Worth, on our opposite flank, to 



Details. 521 

turn Cliapultepec with liis division, and to proceed 
cautiously by the road at its northern base, in order, 
if not met by very superior numbers, to threaten or to 
attack in rear that body of the enemy. The movement 
it was also believed coidd not foil to distract and to in- 
timidate the enemy generally. 

Worth promptly advanced with his remaining bri- 
gade — Colonel Garland's — Lieutenant - Colonel C. F. 
Smith's light battalion. Lieutenant -Colonel Duncan's 
field battery — all of his division — and three squadrons 
of dragoons, under Major Sumner, which I had just 
ordered up to join in the movement. 

Having turned the forest on the west, and arriving 
opposite to the north centre of Chapultepec, Worth 
came up with the troops in the road, under Colonel 
Trousdale, and aided, by a flank movement of a part 
of Garland's brigade, in taking the one-gun breastwork, 
then under the fire of Lieutenant Jackson's section of 
Captain Magruder's field battery. Continuing to ad- 
vance, this division passed Chapultepec, attacking the 
right of the enemy's line, resting on that road, about 
the moment of the general retreat consequent upon the 
capture of the formidable castle and its outworks. 

Arriving some minutes later, and mounting to the 



522 Advance on the Capital. 

top of the castle, the whole field to the east lay plainly 
under my view. 

There are two routes from Chapultepec to the capi- 
tal — the one on the right entering the same gate, 
Belen, with the road from the south, via Piedad ; and 
the other obliquing to the left, to intersect the great 
western, or San Cosme road, in a suburb outside of the 
gate of San Cosme. 

Each of these routes (an elevated causeway) presents 
a double roadway on the sides of an aqueduct of strong 
masonry, and great height, resting on open arches and 
massive pillars, which, together, afford fine points both 
for attack and defence. The sideways of both aque- 
ducts were, moreover, defended by many strong breast^ 
works at the gates, and before reaching them. As we 
had expected, we found the four tracks unusually dry 
and solid for the season. 

Worth and Quitman were prompt in pursuing the 
retreating enemy — the former by the San Cosme aque- 
duct, and the latter along that of Belen. Each had 
now ad', anced some hundred yards. 

Deeming it all-important to profit by our successes, 
and the consequent dismay of the enemy, which could 
not be otherwise than general, I hastened to despatch 



Two Gates Assaulted. 523 

from Cliapultepec, first Clarke's brigade, and then 
Cadwallader's, to tlie support of Worth, and gave 
orders that the necessary heavy gnns should follow. 
Pierce's brigade was, at the same time, sent to Quit- 
man, and in the course of the afternoon I caused 
some additional siege pieces to be added to his train. 
Then after designating the 15th Infantiy, under Lieu 
tenant-Colonel Howard — Morgan, the colonel, had 
been disabled by a wound at Churubusco — as the gar- 
rison of Chapultepec, and giving directions for the care 
of the prisoners of war, the captured ordnance and 
ordnance stores, I proceeded to join the advance of 
"Worth, within the suburb, and beyond the turn at the 
junction of the aqueduct with the great highway from 
the west to the gate of San Cosme. 

At this junction of roads, we first passed one of 
those formidable systems of city defences, spoken of 
above, and it had not a gun ! — a strong proof, 1. That 
the enemy had expected us to fail in the attack upon 
Chapultepec, even if we meant anything more than a 
feint ; 2. That in either case, we designed, in his 
belief, to return and double our forces against the 
southern gates, a delusion kept up by the active de- 
monstrations of Twiggs with the forces posted on that 



52-4 San Cosrae Gate Taken. 

side ; and 3. That advancing rapidly from the reduc- 
tion of CLapultepec, the enemy had not time to shift 
guns — our previous captures had left him, compara- 
tively, but few — from the southern gates. 

Witliin those disgarnished works, I found our troops 
engaged in a street fight against the enemy posted in 
gardens, at windows and on housetops — all flat, with 
parapets. Worth ordered forward the mountain how- 
itzers of Cadwallader's brigade, preceded by skirmish- 
ers and pioneers, with pick-axes and crow-bars, to force 
windows and doors, or to bm'row through walls. The 
assailants were soon on an equality of position fatal to 
the enemy. By eight o'clock in the evening. Worth had 
carried two batteries in this suburb. According to my 
instructions, he here posted guards and sentinels, and 
placed his troops under shelter for the night, within 
the San Cosme gate (custom-house.) 

I had gone back to the foot of Chapultepec, the point 
from which the two aqueducts begin to diverge, some 
hours earlier, in order to be near that new depot, and 
in easy communication with Quitman and Twiggs, as 
well as with Worth. 

From this point I ordered all detachments and 
stragglers to their respective corps, then in advance ; 



Worth and Quitman Re'enforced. 525 

sent to Quitman additional siege guns, ammunition, 
intrencliing tools ; directed Twiggs's remaining brigade 
(Riley's) from Piedad, to support Wortli ; and Captain 
Steptoe's field battery, also at Piedad, to rejoin Quit- 
man's division. 

I had been, from the first, well aware that the 
western or San Cosme, was the less difficult route to 
the centre and conquest of the capital ; and therefore 
intended that Quitman should only manoeuvre and 
threaten the Belen or southwestern gate, in order to 
favor the main attack by Worth — knowing that the 
strong defences at the Belen were directly under the 
guns of the much stronger fortress, called the citadel^ 
just within. Both of these defences of the enemy were 
also within easy supporting distance from the San 
Angel (or Nino Perdido) and San Antonio gates. 
Hence the greater support, in numbers,' given to 
Worth's movement as the main attack. 

Those views I repeatedly,- in the course of the day, 
communicated to Major-General Quitman ; but being 
in hot pursuit, gallant himself, and ably supported by 
Brigadier-Generals Shields and Smith — Shields badly 
wounded before Chapultepec and refusing to retire — as 
well as by all the officers and men of tlie column, 



526 The BeJen Gate Captured, 

Quitman continued to press forward, under flank and 
direct fires, carried an intermediate battery of two 
guns, and then the gate, before two o'clock in the after- 
noon, but not without proportionate loss, increased by 
liis steady maintenance of that position. 

Here, of the heavy battery — 4tli Artillery — Captain 
Drum and Lieutenant Benjamin were mortally wound- 
ed, and Lieutenant Porter, its tliird in rank, slightly. 
The loss of these two most distinguished officers the 
army will long mourn. Lieutenants I. B. Moragne 
and William Canty, of the South Carolina Volunteers, 
also of high merit, fell on the same occasion — besides 
many of our bravest non-commissioned officers and 
men, particularly in Captain Drum's veteran com- 
pany. I cannot in this place, give names or numbers ; 
but full returns of the killed and wounded of all 
corps, in their recent operations, will accompany this 
report. 

Quitman, within the city, adding several new de- 
fences to the position he had won, and sheltering his 
corps as well as practicable, now awaited the return 
of daylight under the guns of the formidable citadel, 
yet to be subdued. 

At about four o'clock next morning (September 14), 



Formal Surrender of the City. 527 

a deputation of tlie ayuntamienio (city council) waited 
upon me to report that the Federal Government and 
the army of Mexico had fled from the capital some 
three hours before, and to demand terms of capitula- 
tion in favor of the church, the citizens, and the muni- 
cipal authorities. I promptly replied, that I would 
sign no capitulation ; that the cit}^ had been virtually 
in our possession from the time of the lodgments effect- 
ed by Worth and Quitman the day before ; that I re- 
gretted the silent escape of the Mexican army ; that I 
should levy upon the city a moderate contribution, for 
special purposes ; and that the American army should 
come under no terms, not s^^Z/'-imposed — such only as 
its own honor, the dignity of the United States, and 
the spirit of the age, should, in my opinion, imperious- 
ly demand and impose. 

For the terms so imposed, I refer the department to 
subsequent general orders, ISTos. 287 and 289 (para- 
graphs 7, 8, and 9, of the latter), copies of which are 
herewith enclosed. 

At the termination of the interview with the city 
deputation, I communicated, about daylight, orders to 
Worth and Quitman to advance slowly and cautiously 
(to guard against treachery) toward the heart of the 



528 /Stars and Stripes on National Palace. 

city, and to occupy its stronger and more commanding 
points. Quitman proceeded to the great j>laza or 
square, planted guards, and hoisted the colors of the 
United States on the national palace — containing the 
Halls of Congress and Executive apartments of Federal 
Mexico. In this grateful service, Quitman might have 
been anticipated by Worth, hut for my express orders, 
halting the latter at the head of the Alameda (a green 
park), within three squares of that goal of general 
ambition. 

The capital, hovrever, was not taken by any one or 
two corps, but by the talent, the science, the gallantry, 
the vigor of this entire army. In the glorious eon- 
quest, all had contributed — early and powerfully — the 
killed, the wounded, and the fit for duty — at Yera 
Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, San Antonio, Cliuru- 
busco (three battles), the Molinos del Rey, and Chapul- 
tepec — as much as those who fought at the gates of 
Belen and San Cosme. 

Soon after we had entered, and were in the act of 
occupying the city, a fire was opened upon us from the 
flat roofs of the houses, from windows and corners of 
streets, by some two thousand convicts, liberated the 
night before, by the flying Government — joined by, 



Unlawful War Punished. 529 

perhaps, as many Mexican soldiers, who had disbanded 
themselves and thrown off their uniforms. This unlaw - 
ful war lasted more than twenty-four hours, in spite of 
the exertions of the municipal authorities, and was not 
put down till we had lost many men, including several 
officers, killed or wounded, and had punished the mis- 
creants. Their objects were to gratify national liatred ; 
and, in the general alarm and confusion, to plunder the 
wealthy inhabitants — particularly the deserted houses. 
But families are now generally returning ; business of 
every kind has been resumed, and the city is already 
tranquil and cheerful, under tlie admirable conduct 
(with exceptions very few and trifling) of om* gallant 
troops. 

This army has been more disgusted than surprised 
that, by some sinister process on the part of certain in- 
dividuals at home, its numbers have been, generally, 
almost trebled in our public papers — beginning at 
V^ashington. 

Leaving, as we all feared, inadequate garrisons at 
Yera Cruz, Perote, and Puebla — with much larger 
hospitals ; and being obliged, most reluctantly, from 
the same cause (general paucity of numbers) to aban- 
don Jalapa, we marched [August Y-10] from Puebla 
23 



530 Our Diminishing Niimhers. 

with only ten thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight 
rank and tile. This number includes the garrison of 
Jalapa, and the two thousand four hundred and twen- 
ty-nine men brought np by Brigadier-General Pierce, 
August 6. 

At Contreras, Chunibusco, etc. [August 20], we had 
l)ut eight thousand four hundred and ninety-seven men 
engaged — after deducting the gamson of San Augustin 
(our general depot), the intermediate sick and the dead ; 
at the Molinos del Eey (September 8), but three T)ri- 
gades, with some cavalry and artillery — making in all 
three thousand two hundred and fiftj^-one men — were 
in the battle ; in the two days — September 12 and 13 — 
our whole operating force, afler deducting again the 
recent killed, wounded, and sick, together with the 
garrison of Mixcoac (the then general depot) and that 
of Tacubaya, was but seven thousand one hundred and 
eighty ; and, iluully, after deducting the new garrison 
of Chapultepec, with the killed and wounded of the 
two days, we took possession (September 14) of this 
great capital with less than six thousand men ! And I 
reassert, upon accumulated and unquestionable evi- 
dence, that, in not one of these conflicts, was this 
army opposed by fewer than three and a half times 



Results of Victories. 531 

its numbers — in several of tliem, by a jet greater 
excess. 

1 recapitulate our losses since we arrived in the 
basin of Mexico : 

August 19, 20 : Killed, 137, including 14 officers. 
Wounded, 877, including 62 officers. Missing (prob- 
ably killed), 38 rank and file. Total, 1,052. Septem- 
ber 8 : Killed, 116, including 9 officers. Wounded, 
665, including 49 officers. Missing, 18 rank and tile. 
Total, 789. 

September 12, 13, 14 : Killed, 130, including 10 
officers. Wounded, 703, including 68 officers. Missing, 
29 rank and file. Total, 862. 

Grand total of losses, 2,703, including 383 officers. 

On the other hand, this small force has beaten on 
the same occasions, in view of their capital, the whole 
Mexican army, of (at the beginning) thirty-odd thou- 
sand men — posted, always, in chosen positions, behind 
intrenchments, or more formidable defences of nature 
and art ; killed or wounded, of that number, more than 
seven thousand officers and men ; taken 3,730 prisoners, 
one-seventh officers, including thirteen generals, of 
whom three had been presidents of this republic ; cap- 
tured more than twenty colors and standards, seventy- 



532 Fragments of Santa Anna'^s Army. 

live pieces of ordnance, besides fifty-seven wall pieces, 
twenty tliousand small arms,* an immense quantity of 
shots, sliells, powder, etc., etc. 

Of that enemy, once so formidable in numbers, 
appointments, artillery, etc., twenty-odd thousand have 
disbanded themselves in despair, leaving, as is known, 
not more than tliree fragments — the largest about two 
thousand five hundred — now wandering in different 
directions, without magazines or a military chest, and 
living at free quarters upon their own people. 

General Santa Anna, himself a fugitive, is believed 
to be on the point of resigning the chief magistracy, 
and escaping to neutral Guatemala. A new President, 
no doubt, will soon be declared, and tlie Federal Con- 
gress is expected to reassemble at Queretaro, one hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles north of this, on the Zaca- 
tecas road, some time in October. I have seen and 
given safe conduct through this city to several of its 
members. The Government will find itself witliout 

* Besides those in the hands of prisoners. The twenty thousand new 
musliets (Rritiah manufacture) found in tlic citadel, were used in a novel 
way. Iron being scarce in the interior, the barrels made excellent shoes 
for our horses and mules, and the brass cuffs or bands were worked up 
into spear heads for the color-staffs, and spurs for the cavalry and all 
moaiited officers. 



Distinguished Conduct Noticed . 533 

resources; no army, no arsenals, no magazines, and 
but little revenue, internal or external. Still such is 
the obstinacy, or rather infatuation, of this people, 
that it is very doubtful whether the new authorities 
will dare to sue for peace on the terms which, in the 
recent negotiations, were made known by our minister 



In conclusion, I beg to enumerate, once more, with 
due commendation and thanks, the distinguished staff 
officers, general and personal, who, in our last opera- 
tions in front of the enemy accompanied me, and com- 
municated orders to every point and through every 
danger. Lieutenant - Colonel Hitchcock, Acting In- 
spector - General ; Major TurnbuU and Lieutenant 
Hardcastle, Topographical Engineers ; Major Kirby, 
Chief Paymaster ; Captain Irwin, Chief Quartermas- 
ter ; Captain Grayson, Chief Commissary ; Captain H. 
L. Scott, Chief in the Adjutant-General's Department; 
Lieutenant Williams, Aide-de-Camp ; Lieutenant Lay, 
Military Secretary, and Major J. P. Gaines, Kentucky 
Cavalry, Yolunteer Aide-de-Camp. Captain Lee, En- 
gineer, so constantly distinguished, also bore important 
orders ft-om me (September 13) until he fainted from a 



5C-i Acknowledgments Continued. 

wouiul and the loss of two nights' sleep at the batteries. 
Lieutenants Beauregard, Stevens, and Tower, all wound- 
ed, were employed with the divisions, and Lieutenants 
G. W. Smith, and G. B. McClellan, with the company 
of Sappers and Minors. Those five lieutenants of 
engineers, like their captain, won the admiration of 
all about them. The Ordnance officers. Captain Huger, 
Lieutenants Hagner, Stone, and Eeno, were highly 
effective, and distinguished at the several batteries; 
and T may add that Captain Mclvinstry, Assistant 
Quartermaster, at the close of the operations, executed 
several important commissions for me as a special vol- 
unteer. 

Surgeon-General Lawson, and the medical staff 
generally, were skilful and untiring in and out of fire, 
in ministering to the numerous wounded. 

To illustrate the operations in this basin, I enclose 

two beautiful drawings, prepared under the directions 

of Major Turnbull, mostly from actual survey. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. Wm. L. AIarcy, Sccretari/ of War. 

The foregoing reports are taken from Ex. Doc. 60 
(TI. of E. April 28, 1848), beginning at p. 1046. 



Entrance into the Cajntal. 535 

The aides-de-camp engaged in copying tlie original 
sheets as they were written, said to me several times : 
"Why, General! yon have understated the general 
result." I replied : " Mum ! If our countrymen be- 
lieve what is given, we may be content ; whereas if I 
tell the whole truth, they may say — 'It is all a ro- 
mance.' " 

Under a brilliant smi, I entered the city at the head 
of the cavalry, cheered by Worth's division of regulars 
drawn up in the order of battle in the Alameda, and by 
Quitman's division of volunteers in the grand plaza 
between the ^National Palace and the Cathedral — all 
the bands playing, in succession. Hail Cohimhia^ Wash- 
ington's llarch, YanTi.ee Doodle^ Hail to the Chiefs 
etc. Even the inhabitants, catching the enthusiasm 
of the moment, tilled the windows and lined the para- 
pets, cheering the cavalcade as it passed at the gallop. 

On entering the Palace, the following order was 
e rly published to the army : 

GENERAL ORDERS. 1 Headquarters of the Army, 

> National Palace of Mexico, 

No. 286. ) September, 1847. 

The General-in-Chief calls upon his bretliren in 
arms to return, both in public and private worship, 



536 Thanks for Divine Favor. 

thanks and gratitude to God for the signal triumphs 
which they liave recently achieved fur their country. 

Beginning with the 19th of August, and ending the 
14th instant, this army lias gallantly fought its way 
through the fields and forts of Contreras, San Antonio, 
Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the 
gates of San Cosme and Tacubaya or Belcn, into the 
capital of Mexico. 

When the very limited numbers who have per- 
formed those brilliant deeds shall have become known, 
the world will be astonished, and our own countrymen 
filled with joy and admiration. 

But all is not yet done. The enemy, though scat- 
tered and dismayed, has still many fragments of his 
late army hovering about us, and, aided by an exas- 
perated population, he may again reunite in treble our 
numbers, and fall upon us to advantage if we rest inac- 
tive on the security of past victories. 

Compactness, vigilance, and discipline are, there- 
fore, our only securities. Let every gOod officer and man 
look to those cautions and enjoin them upon all others. 

By command of Major-General Scott. 

H. L. SCOTT, 
A. A.- General. 



Passjport to Madame Santa Anna. 537 

The day after entering the capital tlie British con- 
sul-general called to ask for an escort of cavalry, and 
a written passport in behalf of the young and beautiful 
wife of President Santa Anna, to enable her to follow 
her husband. Both were, of course, promised ; but, 
finally, she only accepted the passport, deeming that a 
sufficient protection. 

At first, I said to the consul I would do myself the 
honor to make my respects to the fair lady in person; 
but reflecting a moment, I gave up the visit, as, under 
the circumstances, it might by others be regarded as a 
vaunt on my part. 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

BRILLIANT ALLUSION TO THE CAMPAIGN RETALIATORY 

MEASURES — MARTIAL LAW — SAFEGUARDS — PROCLA- 
MATION DEFENCE OF PUEBLA. 

So ended the second conquest of Mexico, which has 
been beautifully, though extravagantly alluded to by a 
distinguished person — Sir Henry Bulwer, sometime 
British Minister accredited to this country. At the 
celebration of St. Andrew's Day, New York, Novem- 
ber 30, 1850, Sir Henry being called up, brought into 
parallelism two British subjects with two Americans — 
thus : 

" All [present] were children of St. Andrew, or to 
Bay the least, nephews of St. George. All were birds 



Sir H. Bulwer's Sjpeech. 539 

of the same feather, though thej might roost on differ- 
ent trees ; members of the same family, though they 
might be adopted by different lands. Even their 
national history was individualized by the same names. 
Who was the first martyr to religious liberty in Scot- 
land ? One Patrick Haimilton (if he did not mistake), 
who was burnt in front of the College of St. Salvador, 
in Edinburgh, by an archbishop of St, Andrew's. Who 
was the foremost amongst the wisest, because the most 
moderate of the early champions of civil liberty in 
America? Alexander Hamilton, who perished be- 
neath the cliffs of Weehawken, also a victim to a bar- 
barous custom and the courage with which he vindi- 
cated his opinions. Xor was this all. Passing from 
the royal house of Hamilton to the princely house of 
Buccleuch, might he not say, in later and more recent 
times, that if Waverley and Guy Mannering had made 
the name of Scott immortal, on one side of the Atlan- 
tic, Cerro Gordo and Churubusco had equally immor- 
talized it on the other. If the novelist had given the 
garb of truth to fiction, had not the warrior given to 
trutli the air of romance ? " — National Intelligencer^ 
Deceniber 4, 1850. 



540 Martial Law Order. 

No doubt the conquest so splendidly alluded to by 
the orator, was maiuly due to the science and prowess 
of the army. But valor and professional science could 
not alone have dictated a treaty of peace with double 
our numbers, in double the time, and with double the 
loss of life, without the measures of conciliation perse- 
veringly adhered to, the perfect ditcipline and order 
maintained in the army. Those measures heretofore 
alluded to are here recorded : 

The marUal law order^ often alluded to above, 
page 392, etc., was first published at Tampico, February 
19, 1847. The second edition was reprinted at Yera 
Cruz, the third at Puebla, and the last as follows : 



GENERAL ORDERS, ) Headquarters of the Army, 

>• National Palace of Mexico, 

No. 287. ) . September 17, 1847. 



The General-in-Chief re][>id>lishes, vnth important ad- 
ditions^ the General Orders, No. 20, of Fehruary 
19, 1847 {declaHng Maktial Law), to govern all 
who may he concerned. 

1. It is still to be apprehended that many grave 
offences, not provided for in the Act of Congress " es- 



Continuation of the Order. 541 

tablisbing rules and articles for tlie government of the 
armies of the United States," approved April 10, 1806, 
may again be committed— by, or upon, individuals of 
those armies, in Mexico, pending the existing war be- 
tween the two Republics. Allusion is here made to 
offences, any one of which, if committed within the 
United States or their organized Territories, would, of 
course, be tried and severely punished by the ordinary 
or civil courts of the land. 

2. Assassination, murder, poisoning, rape, or the 
attempt to commit either ; malicious stabbing or maim- 
ing ; malicious assault and battery, robbery, theft ; the 
wanton desecration of churches, cemeteries or other 
religious edifices and fixtures ; the interruption of re- 
ligious ceremonies, and the destruction, except by order 
of a superior officer, of public or private property; are 

such offences. 

3. The good of the service, the honor of the United 
States and the interests of humanity, imperiously de- 
mand that every crime, enumerated above, should be 
severely punished. 

4. But the written code, as above, commonly called 
the rules and articles of war, does not provide for the 
punishment of any one of those crimes, even when com- 



542 2£artial Laio Order. 

mitted by individuals of the army upon tlie persons or 
property of other individuals of the same, except in the 
very restricted case in the 9th of those articles; nor for 
like outrages, committed by the same class of individ- 
uals, upon the persons or property of a hostile country, 
except very partially, in the 51st, 52d, .and 55tli arti- 
cles ; and the same code is absolutely silent as to all 
injuries which may be inflicted upon individuals of the 
army, or their property, against the laws of war, by in- 
dividuals of a hostile countr3\ 

5. It is evident that the 99th article, independent 
of any reference to the restriction in the 8Yth, is wholly 
nngatory in reacliing any one of those high crimefe. 

6. For all the offences, therefore, enumerated in 
the second paragraph above, which may be committed 
abroad — in, by, or upon the army, a supplemental code 
is absolutely needed. 

7. That unwritten code is Martial Law., as an addi- 
tion to the written military code, prescribed by Con- 
gress in the rules and articles of war, and which im- 
^VTitten code, all armies, in hostile countries, are forced 
to adopt — not only for their own safety, but for the 
protection of the unoffending inhabitants and their 
property, about the theatres of military operations. 



The Order Continued. 543 

against injuries, on the part of the army, contrary to 
the laws of war. 

8. From the same supreme necessity, martial law is 
hereby declared as a supplemental code in, and about, 
all cities, towns, camps, posts, hospitals, and other 
places which may be occupied by any part of the 
forces of the United States, in Mexico, and in, and 
about, all columns, escorts, convoys, guards, and de- 
tachments, of the said forces, while engaged in prose- 
cuting the existing war in, and against the said repub- 
lic, and wdiile remaining within the same. 

9. Accordingly, every crime, enumerated in para- 
graph No. 2, above, M'hether committed — 1. By any 
inhabitant of Mexico, sojourner or traveller therein, 
upon the person or property of an}'- individual of the 
United States forces, retainer or follower of the same ; 
2. By any individual of the said forces, retainer or fol- 
lower of the same, uj^on the person or property of any 
inhabitant of Mexico, sojourner or traveller therein ; 
or 3. By any individual of the said forces, retainer or 
follower of the same, upon the person or property of 
any other individual of the said forces, retainer or fol- 
lower of the same — shall be duly tried and punished 
under the said supplemental code. 



544 The Order Continued. 

10. For this purpose it is ordered, that all offenders, 
in tlie matters aforesaid, shall be promptly seized, con- 
fined, and reported for trial, before military commis- 
sions, to be duly appointed as follows : 

11. Every military commission, under this order, 
w ill be appointed, governed, and limited, as nearly as 
practicable, as prescribed by the G5th, 66th, 67th, and 
97th, of the said rules and articles of war, and the pro- 
ceedings of such commissions will be duly recorded, in 
Meriting, reviewed, revised, disapproved or approved, 
and the sentences executed — all, as near as may be, as 
in the cases of the proceedings and sentences of courts 
martial, provided, that no military commission shall 
try any case clearly cognizable by any court martial, 
and provided, also, that no sentence of a military com- 
mission shall be put in execution against any individual 
belonging to this army, which may not be, according to 
the nature and degree of the offence, as established by 
evidence, in conformity with known punishments, in 
like cases, in some one of the States of the United 
States of America. 

12. The sale, waste or loss of ammunition, horses, 
arms, clothing or accoutrements, by soldiers, is punish- 
able under the 37th and 38th articles of war. Any 



The Order Continued. 545 

Mexican or resident or traveller, in Mexico, who shall 
purchase of any American soldier, either horse, horse 
equipments, arms, ammunition, accoutrements or cloth- 
ing, shall be tried and severely punished, by a military 
commission, as above. 

13. The administration of justice, both in civil and 
criminal matters, through the ordinary courts of the 
country, shall nowhere and in no degree, be interrupted 
by any officer or soldier of the American forces, except, 

1, In cases to which an officer, soldier, agent, servant, 
or follower of the American army may be a party ; and 

2. In political cases — that is, prosecutions against other 
individuals on the allegations that they have given 
friendly information, aid or assistance to the American 
forces. 

14. For the ease and safety of both parties, in all 
cities and towns occupied by tlie American ami}", a 
Mexican police shall be established and du^ly harmon- 
ized with the military police of the said forces. 

15. This splendid capital — its churches and religious 
worship ; its convents and monasteries ; its inhabitants 
and property are, moreover, placed under the special 
safeguard of the faith and honor of the American army. 

16. In consideration of the foregoing protection, a 



540 The Order Completed. 

contribution of $150,000 is imposed on this capital, to 
be paid in four weekly instalments of tliirty-seven thou- 
sand five Imndred dollars ($37,500) each, beginning on 
Monday next, the 20tli instant, and terminating on 
Monday, the 11th of October. 

17. The Ayuntamiento, or corporate authority of 
the city, is specially charged with the collection and 
payment of the several instalments. 

18. Of the whole contributions to be paid over to 
this army, twenty thousand dollars shall be appropri- 
ated to the purchase of extra comforts for the wounded 
and sick in hospital ; ninety thousand dollars ($90,000) 
to the purchase of blankets and shoes for gratuitous 
distribution among the rank and file of the army, and 
forty thousand dollars ($40,000) reserved for other 
necessary military purposes. 

19. This order will be read at the head of every 
company of the United States' forces, serving in Mex- 
ico, and translated into Spanish for the information of 
Mexicans. 

By command of Major-General Scott. 

H. L. SCOTT, 
A. A. General. 



General Regulations. 547 

Tlie following printed regulations, among others, 
were in the hands of the whole army, and are here ex- 
tracted as subsidiary to the martial law order : 

As a special security, any general-in-chi(!f, general 
of an army corps, or division, is authorized to give safe- 
guards to hospitals, public establishments of instruction, 
of religion, or of charity, also to mills, post offices, and 
the like. They may, further, give them to individuals 
whom it is the particular interest of the army to pro- 
tect. 

" Whosoever, belonging to the armies of the United 
States, employed in foreign parts, shall force a safe- 
guard, shall suffer death " (54th article of war). 

A safeguard may consist of one or more men of 
fidelity and firmness, generally non-efiective sergeants 
or corporals, furnished with a printed or written paper, 
purporting the character and object of the guard, or it 
may consist of such paper only, delivered to the inhab- 
itant of the country, whose house, etc., it is designed 
to protect. Disrespect to such a paper, when produced, 
constitutes the ofience, and incurs the penalty men- 
tioned in the article, etc., above cited. 

The men left with a safeguard may require of the 



548 Use of Safeguards. 

persons for v\-liose benefit they are so left, reasonable 
subsistence and lodging ; and the neighboring inhabit- 
ants will be held responsible, by the army, for an^; 
violence done thera. 

The bearers of a safeguard left by one corps, may 
be replaced by the corps that follows ; and if the coun- 
try be evacuated, they will be recalled ; or they may 
be instructed to wait lor the arrival of tlie enemy, and 
demand of him a safe conduct to the outposts of the 
army. 

The following form will be used : 

SAFEGUARD. 

By authority of Major-Gen. (0/- Br'ujadier-Gen. ). 

The person, the property, and the famihj of (or 

such a college, and the persons and things belonging to it ; 
such a mill, etc.), are placed under the safeguard of the United 
States. To offer any violence or injury to them is expressly 
forbidden ; on the contrary, it is ordered that safety and pro- 
tection be yiccn to him, or tliem, in case of need. 
Done at the Ileadt^uarters of , this day of , IS — . 

Forms of safeguards ought to be printed in blank, 



Proclamation — Effects. 549 

headed by the article of war relative thereto, and held 
readj to be filled up, as occasions may offer. A dupli- 
cate, etc., in each case, might be affixed to the houses, 
or edifices, to which they relate. 

But the crowning act of conciliation was the procla- 
mation that I issued at Jalapa, May 11, 1847, indig- 
nantly denying the " calumnies put forth by the [Mex- 
ican] press in order to excite hostility against us," and 
confidently appealing to "the clergy, civil authorities, 
and inhabitants of all the places we have occupied." 
" The army of the United States," I continued, " re- 
spects, and will ever respect private property and per- 
sons, and the property of the Mexican Church. Woe to 
him who does not, where we are ! " — Ex. Doc. No. 60, 
H. of JR., SOth Congress, 1st /Session. Brevet Major- 
General "Worth, though hostile to me, wrote from the 
advanced j)osition, Puebla — "It was most fortunate 
that I got hold of one copy of your proclamation. I 
had a third edition struck off, and am now with hardly 
a copy on hand. It takes admirably and my doors are 
crowded for it." 

" It has produced more decided effects than all the 
blows from Palo Alto to Cerro Gordo." — Ibid, p. 967. 



550 Santa Anna Besieges Puebla. 

Retiring from the capital, Santa Anna cullected 
several fragments of his late armj and laid siege to 
Puebla — the garrison of which being considerably less 
than was intended ; for, although, on advancing from 
that city I gave the strictest orders that all convales- 
cents as well as the sick should be left behind, about 
six hundi'ed of the former imposed themselves upon 
their medical and company officers as entirely restored 
to health. For stationary or garrison duty they would 
have been fully qualified, but proved a burden to the 
advancing columns ; for they soon began to break down 
and to creep into the subsistence wagons faster than 
these were lightened by the consumption of the troops. 

Tlie siege was prosecuted with considerable vigor 
for twenty-eight days, and nobly repulsed by our able 
and distinguished commander, Colonel Childs, with his 
gallant but feeble garrison, at all points and at every 
assault. During those arduous and protracted opera- 
tions, the glory of our arms was nobly supported by 
officers and men. Colonel Childs specially commends 
by name — and no doubt justly — the skill, zeal, and 
prowess of Lieutenant-Colonel Black and Captain Small, 
both of the Pennsylvania Volunteers ; the highly ac 
complished Captain [now Professor] Keudrick, United 



General Hesults. 551 

States 4:th Artillery, chief of that arm, and Captain 
Miller, of the same regiment ; Lieutenant Laidley, of 
the Ordnance ; Captain Kowe of the 9th Infantry, and 
Lieutenant T. G. Eliett, A. C. S. Captain W. C. De 
Hart (Artillery), and Lieutenant-Governor of Puebla, 
though in feeble heath, conducted a sortie with success, 
and was otherwise distinguished. Death soon after 
deprived the service of this accomplished oflScer. 



CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

QUESTION OF FEEE QUAKTERS — SYSTEM OF FINANCE 

SPREAD OF THE TROOPS. 

Early in the campaign I began to receive letters 
from Washington, urging me to support the army by 
forced contributions. Under the circumstances, this 
was an impossibility. The population was sparse. We 
had no party in the country, and had to encounter the 
hostility of both religion and race. All Mexicans, at 
first, regarded us as infidels and robbers. Hence there 
was not among them a farmer, a miller, or dealer in 
subsistence, who would not have destroyed whatever 
property he could not remove beyond our reach sooner 
than allow it to be seized without compensation. For 



Free Quarters — System of Finance. 553 

the first day or two we might, perhaps, have seized 
current subsistence within five miles of oiu- route ; but 
by the end of a week the whole army must have been 
broken up into detachments and scattered far and wide 
over the country, skirmishing with rancheros and regu- 
lar troops, for the means of satisfying the hunger of 
the day. Could invaders, so occupied, have conquered 
Mexico ? 

The war being virtually over, I now gave attention 
to a system of finance for the support of the army and 
to stimulate overtures of peace. The subject required 
extensive inquiries and careful elaboration. My inten- 
tion was to raise the first year about twelve millions of 
dollars, with the least possible pressure on the industry 
and wealth of the country, with an increase to fifteen 
millions in subsequent years. The plan is given at 
large, in seven papers (four reports and three orders). 
See Fx. Doc. jS^o. 60, //. of R., 2,Vth Congress, 1st 
Session, p. 1046, and following. The orders are here 
omitted and the finance details, contained in the four 
reports, also. 



554: Want of Troops. ^ 

Report No. 40. 

Headquarters of the Army, ) 

Mexico, December 17, 184Y. ) 

Sra: 

The troop of Louisiana horse, -niider Captain Fair- 
child, that so handsomely escorted up from Vera Cruz 
Mr. Doyle, the British Charge d' Affaires, being about 
to return to its station, I avail myself of the opportu- 
nity to write to the department. 

I invite attention to my order, No. 376, and par- 
ticularly to its seventh paragraph — import and export 
duties. Since its publication, I have seen in a slip, 
cut from a Vera Cruz newspaper (received here by a 
merchant), what purports to be a letter, dated the 17th 
ultimo, from the department to me on the same subject. 



Major - General Butler's and Lieutenant - Colonel 
Johnston's columns will he here to-day, to-morrow, 
and the next day ; and in a week I propose to despatch 
one column to San Luis de Potosi. When, or whether, 
I shall have a sufficient independent force for Zacate- 
i-as, is yet, to me, quite uncertain. The San Luis col- 



spread of Troojps — Collection of Dues, etc. 555 

umn, witli a view to Tampico, and in part to Zacate- 
cas, is the more important, and may be enlarged to, 
perhaps, seven thousand men. 

The following distances from the Mexican official 
itineraries may be useful : From the capitalto Quere- 
taro, is 57 leagues, or 142 miles ; thence to Zacatecas, 
282 miles — the two distances making 424. From the 
capital to San Luis, is 113 leagues, or 382 miles (Quere- 
taro may be avoided), and, in continuance by that 
route, 260 miles to Tampico, or 134 to Zacatecas. 
Thus, from Mexico, ma San Luis, to Tampico, is 642 
miles, and to Zacatecas, 516; whereas, the distance 
from Zacatecas to Tampico is but 398. Zacatecas, 
therefore, may be advantageously reached, or its trade 
opened with Tampico, via San Luis. The difficulty is, 
to occupy the state capitals of Guanajuato, etc., with- 
out passing through and including Queretaro, the tem- 
porary capital of the Federal Government; and I am 
reluctant to disturb that Government whilst it con- 
tinues intent on a peace with us, without further 
knowledge of the views at "Washington on the subject. 
That information I hope soon to receive ; and, if in 
favor of covering the country, to hear of the approach 
of recinforcements behind the column of Brigadier- 



556 Failure to Send Clothing. 

General Marsliall, now I suppose, as far advanced as 

Jalapa. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. Secretauy of War. 



Report ^^o. 41. 

Headquarters of the Army, i 
Mexico, December 25, 1847. J 

Sir: 

As I had apprehended (in Eeport No. 37), Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Johnston's train has returned without one 
blanket, coat, jacket, or pair of pantaloons, the small 
depot at Yera Cruz having been exhausted bj the 
troops under Generals Patterson, Butler, and Mar- 
shall, respectively, all fresh from home or the Brazos, 
and, as in the case of other arrivals, since June, with- 
out clothing ! The regiments that came with me must, 
therefore, remain naked, or be supplied with very in- 
ferior garments, of every color and at high prices, as 
M^e may possibly be able to find the poor materials, 
and canse them to be made up here. This disappoint- 



Green Troops- — Incessant Labors. 557 

ment may delay any distant expedition for many 
weeks; for some of the new volunteers are already 
calling for essential articles of clothing. 

Eeferring again to former letters on the subject, I 
beg leave to add that every old regiment forwarded, 
more than a twelvemonth ago, its usual annual requi- 
sition for clotliing, which has never arrived, or it has 
been issued as above. "With excessive labor I had 
brought the old regiments — volunteers as well as regu- 
lars — favored by our long and necessary halts at Yera 
Cruz, Jalapa, and Puebla, to respectable degrees of 
discipline, instruction, conduct, and economy. The 
same intolerable work, at general headquarters, is to be 
perpetually renewed, or all the credit heretofore ac- 
quired by this army for moral conduct, as well as skill 
and prowess in tlie field, will be utterly lost by new 
arrivals, and there is now no hope of bringing up to the 
proper standard distant posts and detachments. These 
cannot be governed by any written code of orders or 
instructions, sent from a distance. I do not mean to 
accuse the re enforcements, generally, of deficiency in 
valor, patriotism, or moral character. Far from it ; 
but among all new levies, of whatever denomination, 
there are always a few miscreants in every hundred, 



558 Pachuca and Toluca Occupied. 

enough, without discipline^ to disgrace the entire mass, 
and what is infinitely worse — the country that employs 
them. My daily distresses under this head w^eigh me 
to the earth. 

I am about to send a detachment, the 9th Infantry, 
iiiuler Colonel Withers, to Pachuca, near the great 
mines of Ileal del Monte, some fifty miles to the north- 
east. There is an assay ofiice at Pachuca, to which a 
large amount of silver bullion is soon to be brought, 
and if we have not trooj)s present, the Federal officers 
of Mexico will seize the assay duties to our loss. I 
shall send another detachment in a few days to occupy 
Toluca, the capital of this State, with the general ob- 
ject of securing the contribution claimed for our mili- 
tary chest. — See General Orders, No. 376, paragraph 
5. I am nearly ready to publish the details promised 
in the tenth paragraph of that order. I have found 
them very difficult to obtain and to methodize. 

There will, I apprehend, be no difficulty in collect- 
ing at the assay offices and mints within our reach the 
ordinary internal dues on the precious metals. As to 
other internal dues and taxes (not abolished by my 
order, No. 37G), I propose to find the net am.ount paid, 
to the Federal Government, for example, by the State 



Finance — Struggles with Miscreants. 559 

of Yera Cruz, for 1843, and to assess that sum, in mass, 
upon the State, to be paid into our military eliest, a 
twelftli at the end of every month, by the State Gov- 
ernment, and so of the other States which are or may 
be occupied by our troops. Each State will be required 
to collect the amount claimed, according to the Federal 
assessment for the year 1843, under certain penalties, 
which may be the seizure, without payment, of the 
supplies needed for the support of the occupation, and 
particularly the property of the State functionaries, 
Legislative and Executive, with the imprisonment of 
their persons, etc., etc., etc. The fear is, those func- 
tionaries may abdicate, and leave the States without 
Governments. In such event, the like penalties will 
be, so far as practicable, enforced. 

The success of the system — on the details of which 
I am now, with ample materials, employed — depends 
on our powers of conciliation. With steady troops I 
should not doubt the result; but the great danger 
lies in the w^ant of that quality on the part of the new 
recnforcements, including the recruits of the old regi- 
ments. The average number of disorders and crimes, 
always committed by undisciplined men, with inex- 
perienced officers, may destroy the best-concerted plans, 



^ 



5 GO Finance — Annexation. 

by exasperating tlie inhabitants, and rendering the 
•war, on their part, national, interminable, and des- 
perate. 

It will be perceived that I do not propose to seize 
the ordinary State or city revenues ; as that would, in 
my humble judgment, be to make war on civilization ; 
as no community can escape absolute anarchy without 
civil government, and all government must have some 
revenue for its support. I shall take care, however, 
to see that the means collected within any particular 
State or city for that purpose are moderate and reason- 
able. 

It cannot be doubted that there is a considerable 
party in this country in favor of annexing it entire to 
the United States, How far that desire may be recip- 
rocated at home, I' know not, and it would be imperti- 
nent in a soldier to inquire. I am here (whilst I re- 
main) to execute the military orders of my Government. 
But, as a soldier, I suppose it to be my duty to offer a 
suggestion on the subject, founded on professional and 
local knowledge, that may not occur to the minds of 
statesmen generally. 

Annexation and military occupation would be, if 
we maintain the annexation, one and the same thing, 



Occupation or Annexation? 561 

as to the amount of force to be employed by us ; for if, 
after the formal act, by treaty or otherwise, we should 
withdraw our troops, it cannot be doubted that all 
Mexico, or rather the active part thereof, would again 
relapse into a permanent state of revolution, beginning 
with one against annexation. The great mass of this 
people have always been passive under every form of 
government that has prevailed in the country, and the 
turbulent minority, divided into ins and outs, particu- 
larly the military demagogues, are equally incapable 
of self-government, and delight in nothing but getting 
power by revolution, and abusing that power when 
obtained. 

I still entertain the belief that propositions, looking 
to a peace, will be submitted by the incoming Govern- 
ment here, in all tlie next month ; but that any conces- 
sion of boundaries, satisfactory to the United States, 
would, on the withdrawment of our forces, create a 
revolt, or the overthrow of that Government, with a 
nullification of the treaty, I hold to be events more 
than probable. In the mean time it would be highly 
advantageous to me, officially, to have an early intima- 
tion of the views of our Government as to the terms of 

a treaty that would now be satisfactory, only to prevent 

24* 



502 JSfo Answer to Inquiries on the Suhject. 

a wrong distribution of tlie troops in respect to those 
unknown views. 

I have received no acknowledged communication 
from tlie Department. The letter of the ITtli ultimo, 
published, as I have heretofore mentioned, in a Yera 
Cruz newspaper, has not come to hand, but I am daily 
expecting a mail up from that city. 

I have the honor to be, etc., etc., 

W INFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon, Secretary of War. 



Rejport No. 42. 

Headquarters of the Army, ) 
Mexico, January 6, 1848. ) 

Sir: 

Nothing of interest has occurred since my report 
of the 26th ultimo ; not even the arrival of a mail ; but 
a private conveyance brought up yesterday a letter 
from Brigadier-General Marshall, representing tliat he 
was at Jalapa the 22d ultimo, with a column of troops 
(number not given), one half of whom were on the sick 
report, with measles and diarrhoea, and that he had 



Measures for Collecting Income. 563 

sent back his train to Yera Cruz for medicines and 
other supplies. He gave no day for the recommence- 
ment of his march. 

The number on the sick report, in this basin, is also 
great. In a total of 14,964, we have only 11,162 " for 
duty." The measles are rife among the new volun- 
teers. 

Colonel Withers, \vith the 9th Infantry, occupied 
Pachuca, quietly, more than a week ago. Brigadier- 
General Cadwallader, with the remainder of his bri- 
gade, will march for Lenna and Toluca (State capital, 
thirty-eight miles off, in a direction opposite to Pachuca) 
to-day. The general object in occupying the three 
cities is to commence levying the assessments for the 
last month, and, through them, to enforce peace. 
Please see copies of General Orders, Kos. 395-8, here- 
with. (Giving the finance details promised in Order, 
Ko. 376.) 

The tobacco monopoly I have thought it necessary 
to abolish. It would be worthless without a prohibi- 
tion of the plant at the custom houses, and I doubted 
whether our Government, considering the interests of 
some five of our own tobacco-growing States, would 
prohibit the importation. Again, to protect the mo- 



564 More Troojjs Needed. 

nopoly, including licenses to cultivators, would require 
a host of excise men. Probably a reasonable duty on 
importation will give larger net receipts for a year or 
two than could be derived in that time from any mo- 
nopoly however strictly enforced. 

Like difficulties in management caused me to relin- 
quish to the Mexican States, respectively, the stamped- 
paper and playing-card monopolies. More than a sub- 
stitute will be found in the quadrupling of the direct 
assessments on the States. 

From the want of sufficient numbers to send, at 
once, columns of five thousand men each to Zacatecas 
and San Luis de Potosi, respectively, I next proposed 
to despatch to the latter place a force of seven thousand, 
which would be sufficient to open the chaimel of com- 
merce between Tampico and Zacatecas, a distance of 
three hundred and ninety-four miles, and, by the opera- 
tion, double, perhaps, the receipts at that seaport, as 
well as the interior dues on the precious metals. The 
commercial wealth of Durango would soon fall into the 
same channel. But assuming seven thousand men as 
the minimum force for this neighborhood, including 
the capital, Chapultepec, Pachuca, Lerma, and Toluca, 
I am obliored to wait for further recnforcements to 



Poorer Provinces not to he Occxipiccl. 565 

make up the one column for San Luis. The delay of 
Brigadier-General Marshall, who had been expected 
daily for nearl}^ a week, is, therefore, quite a vexatious 
disappointment. Possibly before his arrival (should 
the measles here have earlier subsided), I may risk a 
column of five thousand men, leaving, for a time, two 
intermediate posts vacant, and instruct the commander 
(Major-General Butler) to take into his sphere of opera- 
tion a part of the forces belonging to the base of the 
Rio Grande. A detachment moving upon Tula, and, 
perhaps, leaving Victoria to the left, might cooperate 
very advantageously with the forces at the new centre, 
San Luis, and without endangering the line of Mon- 
terey, in which direction, it is supposed, the Mexicans 
cannot have any formidable number of organized 
troops. To concert the double movement, by corre- 
spondence, would be the principal difficulty ; but ample 
discretion would be allowed in my general instructions. 
Many of the States of this republic, on account of 
their remoteness from the common centre, sparseness 
of population, and inability to pay more than a trifle 
in the way of contributions, are not worth being occu- 
pied. Their influence on the question of peace or war 
is, proportionally, inconsiderable. As reenforcements 



5GG j\Iints in the Hands of Foreigners. 

arrive, I shall therefore endeavor to occupy only the 
more populous and wealthy States. 

Most of the mints (all but two, I learn) have been 
farmed by foreigners for terms of years (unexpired), on 
the payment of large sums in advance. The principal 
mint (here) is in hands of the British Consul-General, 
who paid down about $200,000 in February last for 
the term of ten years, and contracted to pay, currently, 
one jper centum on the amount of coinage. I suppose 
myself bound to respect such contracts until otherwise 
instructed. Other mints pay, I am informed, one and 
a half jper centum on the money turned out. Hence a 
direction in General Orders, No. 395, to examine the 
contracts between the Mexican Government and the 
several mints. Those not under contract will be as- 
sessed as heretofore. 

By two conveyances I am expecting mails up fi'om 
Vera Cruz in two and four days. 1 am anxious to re- 
ceive the views of the Department on several points 
of importance to me in this command. 

The new Federal Executive and Congress are, as 
yet, not installed. Both, it is believed, will be strongly 
inclined to a peace. 

I have the honor, etc., etc., 
Eox. Secretary of War. WINFIELD SCOTT. 



Expedition Against the Outlaw Priest. 56T 



Report No. 43. 

BQUART 

Mexico, January 13 



Headquarters of the Army, ) 
, 1848. \ 



Sir: 

I have not had a line from any public office at 
Washington of a date later than October 26. 

The spy company has returned from Yera Cruz ; 
but it seems that despatches for me had been intrusted 
to a special messenger (I suppose from Washington), 
who, after a delay of many days at Perote, came up 
with the company to Puebla, where he again stopped 
and retained all my letters. 

Brigadier-General Cadwallader has quietly occupied 
Toluca and Lerma. As was known, the State Goveni- 
ment had retired (thirteen leagues) to Sultepec, The 
general has invited that Government to provide for the 
payment of the assessment upon the State ; but there 
has not been yet time to receive a reply. 

Some days since. Colonel Wynkoop, of the 1st 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, tendered his services to go, 
with a few men, to seize the guerilla priest, Jarauta, 
at the head of a small band that has long been the 
terror of all peaceable Mexicans within his reach, and 
who has frequently had skirmishes with our dctnch- 



568 • All Expeditions Successful. 

ments. The colonel having missed that ol)ject, lieard 
that General Valencia and staff were at a distant haci- 
enda, and by hard riding in the night, succeeded in 
capturing that general and a colonel of his staff. I 
consider this handsome service worthy of being re- 
corded. 

Colonel Hays, with a detachment of Texan Eangers, 
returned last night from a distant expedition in search 
of the robber priest. In a skirmish, -without loss on 
his part, he killed some eight of Jarauta's men, and 
thinks that tlie priest was carried off among the many 
wounded. 

The spy company, coming up from Vera Cruz, had 
also a very successful affair with a large party of the 
enemy, and captured some forty prisoners, including 
three generals. 

Tlie second train, now out from Yera Cruz eleven 

days, was, as I learn by the enclosed correspondence, 

attacked by a numerous body of the enemy, and suffered 

a loss that looks like a disaster — the first that we have 

sustained ; but fm-ther details are needed. 

I have the honor, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. Secretary of War. 



System of Finance Successful. 



569 



Beport iVb. 44. 

Headquarters of the Army, ) 
Mexico, February 2, 1848. ) 

Sir: 

Since my last report (January 13), I have received 
from the War Office letters dated November 8 and 17, 
and December 14, 

My orders, Nos. 362, 376, and 395 of the last year, 
and 15 of the present (heretofore forwarded), will ex- 
hibit the system of finance I have established for the 
parts of the country occupied by this army. 

It will be seen that the export duties on coins, and 
the prohibition of the export of bars, varies materially 
from your instructions of November 17, acknowledged 
above. I hope, for the reasons suggested in my report, 
No. 40 (December 17), the President may be induced 
to adopt my views in respect to the precious metals. 

I am without reports from commanders of depart- 
ments below, on the progress made in collecting the 
direct assessments under my orders and circulars. The 
ayimtamiento (city council) of the capital has charged 
itself with the payment, on account of the Federal dis- 
trict, of $400,000, of the $668,332 per year, imposed 



570 War of Detail. 

on the State of Mexico, and an-angements are in prog- 
ress to meet that engagement. Two months are now 
due. Brigadier-General Cadwallader, at Toluca, hopes 
soon to begin to collect, through the ayuntamiento of 
that city, a large part of the remainder of the monthly 
assessments, and I have sent Colonel Clarke with a 
small brigade to Cueruavaca (some forty-three miles 
south, on the Acapulco road), to complete tlie same 
collection. 

The war of masses having ended vvith the capture 
of this city, the war of detail^ including the occupation 
of the country, and the collection of revenue, requires a 
large additional force, as I suggested in my despatch, 
No. 34. 

I see that I am, at Washington, supposed to have 
at my command more than thirty thousand men. In- 
cluding the forces at Tampico, Yera Cruz, on the line 
thence, and in this neighborhood, our total does not ex- 
ceed twenty-four thousand eight hundred and sixteen. 
Deducting the indispensable garrisons and the sick, I 
have not left a disposable force for distant expeditions 
of more than four thousand five hundred men, and I do 
not hear of the approach of any considerable reenforce- 
ment. Seven thousand men I deem the minimum 



Many Cities to Occvjpy — Peace. 571 

number necessary to open the important line from 
Durango, through Zacatecas and San Luis, to Tampico. 
Premising tliat I find it impossible to obtain from the 
volunteers, at a distance, regular returns, I send an 
approximate estimate of all the forces under my imme- 
diate orders. The numbers, among the volunteers, 
afflicted with the measles and mumps, in this vicinity, 
continue to be very great, and the erysipelas is common 
among all the corps. 

I write in haste by the express who carries the pro- 
ject of a treaty that Mr. Trist has, at the moment, 
signed with Mexican commissioners. If accepted, I 
hope to receive, as early as practicable, instructions 
respecting the evacuation of this country ; the dispo- 
sition to be made of wagons, teams, cavalry, and artil- 
lery horses ; the points in the United States to w^hich I 
shall direct the troops respectively, etc., etc. (I have 
not yet read the treaty, except in small part.) In the 
same contingency, if not earlier recalled (and I under- 
stand my recall has been demanded by two of my 
juniors ! ! ), I hope to receive instructions to allow me 
to return to the United States, as soon as I may deem 
the public service will permit, charging some other 
general officer with completing the evacuation, wliich 



572 JReenforcements Needed. 

ought, if practicable, to Le iinislied before the return 
of the vomito / say early in May. 

lu about forty days I may receive an aeknowledg 
ment of this report. By that time, if the treaty be not 
accepted, I hope to be sufficiently recnforced to open 
the commercial line between Zacatecas and Tampico. 
The occupation of Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Guada- 
lajm*a would be the next in importance, and some of 
the ports of the Pacific, the third. Meanwhile, the col- 
lection of internal dues on the precious metals, and the 
direct assessments, shall be continued. 

I enclose a letter from Commodore Shubrick, and 
have the honor to remain, etc., etc., 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. Secretary of 'War. 



Report JSfo. 45. 

Headquarters of the Army, l 
■ Mexico, February 9, 1848. ) 

Ser : 

I have received no communication from the War 
Department, or the Adjutant- General's OflSce, since 



MacJdnators Assured of Siipjjort. 573 

my last report (ISTo. 44), dated tlie 2d instant; but slips 
fi'om newspapers and letters from Washington have 
come to interested parties here, representing, I learn, 
that the President has determined to place me before a 
court, for daring to enforce necessary discipline in this 
army against certain of its high officers ! I make only 
a passing comment upon these unofficial announce- 
ments ; learning with pleasure, through the same 
sources, that I am to be superseded by Major-General 
Butler. Perhaps, after trial, I may be permitted to 
return to the United States. My poor services with 
this most gallant army are at length to be requited as I 
have long been led to expect they would be. 

I have the honor, etc., etc., 

WliN FIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. Secretary of War. 



CHAPTEE XXXY. 

SUPPRESSION OF OUTLAWS — PEACE COMinSSIONEE — TREATY 
SIGNED — MEXICAN OVEKTUKES COURT OF INQUIRY. 

A CENSURE of Mr. Jay, on my conduct at Yera Cruz, 
is noticed above, at page 428. Another occurs in his 
book {Remew of the Mexican TFa/'), page 207. Con- 
sidering the gravity of his character, this censure also 
demands a passing notice. 

Some three months after entering the capital of 
Mexico I issued an order declaring: 

" The highways used, or about to be used, by the 
American troops, being still infested in many parts by 
those atrocious bands called guerillas or rancheros, 
who, under instructions from the late Mexican authori- 
ties, continue to violate every rule of warfare observed 



Suppression of Outlav^s. 575 

by civilized nations, it has become necessary to an- 
nounce to all the views and instructions of general 
headquarters on the subject." And it was added: 
"Ko quarter will be given to known murderers or 
robl)ers, whether guerillas or ranch eros, and whether 
serving under [obsolete] commissions or not. Oflfend- 
ers of this character, accidentally falling into the hands 
of American troops [that is, without knowing their 
character], will be momentarily held as prisoners, that 
is, not put to death without due solemnity," meaning 
(and it was so prescribed) a trial by a council of three 
officers. This order Mr. Jay denounces as harsh or 
cruel. 

Now in charity, Mr. Jay must be supposed to have 
been ignorant of what was universally known in Mex- 
ico, that the outlaws, denounced in the order, never 
made a prisoner, but invariably put to death every acci- 
dental American straggler, wounded or sick man, that 
fell into their hands — whether he was left by accident, 
in hospital or in charge of a Mexican family. And 
Mr. Jay, no doubt, must have known that it is a univer- 
sal right of war, not to give quarter to an enemy that 
puts to death all who fall into his hands. 

Some time before the date of that order, Mr Trist. 



570 The Peace Commissioner. 

our peace commissioner, long my gnest, reopened nego- 
tiations at the instance of the Mexican Government, in 
the hope of terminating hostilities; but early in the 
negotiations he was recalled. I encouraged him, nev- 
ertheless, to finish the good work he had begun. The 
Mexican commissioners, knowing of the recall, hesitated. 
On application, I encouraged them also, giving it as my 
confident belief that any treaty Mr. Trist might sign 
would be duly ratified at Washington. 

Mr. Trist approached me at Jalapa under circum- 
stances quite adverse to harmony. We had known 
each otlier very slightly at Washington, with, from 
accident, evident feelings of mutual dislike. With his 
arrival I received the most reliable information fi-om 
Washington, that his well-known prejudice against me 
had had much weight in his appointment ; and I re- 
membered that, on taking leave (tf the President, he 
told me he intended or hoped to send to reside at head- 
quarters with me, the very eminent statesman, Silas 
Wright, as peace commissioner, with an associate — 
leaving me half at liberty to believe, I might, myself, 
be the other commissioner. What coukl ha^-e been more 
natural ? Writing to the Secretary of War on this sub- 
ject, May 20, 1847, from Jalapa, I said : 



Attempt to Siibject the Commander to Him,. 577 

" The Hon. Mr. Benton lias publicly declared, that 
if the law had passed making him General-in-Chief of 
the United States armies in Mexico, either as lieuten- 
ant-general or as junior major-general over seniors, the 
power would have been given him not only of agreeing 
to an armistice (which would, of course, have apper- 
tained to his position), but the much higher one of con- 
cluding a treaty of peace ; and it will be remembered 
also, that in my letter to Major-General Taylor, dated 
June 12, 1846, written at your instance [etc.], his power 
to agree to an armistice was merely adverted to in order 
to place upon it certain limitations. I understand your 
letter to me of the 14th ultimo, as not only taking from 
me, the commander of an army, under the most critical 
circumstances, all voice or advice in agreeing to a truce 
with the enemy, but as an attempt to place me under 
the military command of Mr. Trist ; for you tell me 
that ' should he make known to you in writing, that 
the contingency had occurred in consequence of which 
the President is willing that further active military 
operations should cease, you will regard such notice as 
a direction from the President to suspend them until 
further orders froin this Department.' That is, I am 
required to respect the judgment of Mr. Trist, here, on 



678 Protest. 

passing events, purely military, as the judgment of the 
President, who is some two thousand miles off! 

" I suppose this to be the second attempt of the kind 
over made to dishonor a General-in-Chief in the field 
before or since the time of the French Convention. 
That other instance occurred in jour absence from 
Washington in June, 1845, when Mr. Bancroft, Acting 
Secretary of War, instructed General Taylor in certain 
matters to obey the orders of Mr. Donaldson, Charge 
<r Affaires in Texas ; and you may remember the letter 
I wrote to General Taylor, with the permission of both 
Mr. Bancroft and yourself, to correct that blunder." 



" Whenever it may please the President to instruct 
me cjirectly, or through any authorized channel, to pro- 
pose or to agree to an armistice with the enemy, on 
the happening of any given contingency, or to do any 
other military act, I shall most promptly and cheer- 
fully obey him ; but I entreat to be spared the personal 
dishonor of being again required to obey the orders of 
the chief clerk of the State Department." 



The Peace Commissioner. 579 

" To Mr. Trist as a functionary of my Government, 
I have caused to be shown since his arrival here every 
proper attention. I sent the chief quartermaster and 
an aide-de-camp to show him the rooms 1 had ordered 
for him. I have caused him to be tendered a sentinel 
to be placed, etc. I shall, from time to time, send him 
word of my personal movements, and shall continue to 
show him all other attentions necessary to the discharge 
of any diplomatic function with which he may be en- 
trusted." 

The coolness between Mr. Trist and myself was 
much aggravated by accident. He fell ill at Yera 
Cruz, and was obliged to take much morphine to save 
life. Hence the offensive tone of certain letters. He 
several times relapsed. At Puebla, he was again dan- 
gerously ill, and I placed him under the special care 
of his and my friend, General Persifer F. Smith, at 
whose instance I visited his charge. My sympathy 
became deeply interested in his recovery, when he be- 
came my guest for more than six months. I never had 
a more amiable, quiet, or gentlemanly companion. He 
was highly respected by the Mexican authorities, and 
foreign diplomats residing in Mexico. The United 



580 Quartering Trooj)s in Cities. 

States could not have had a better representative. I 
am sorry to add that, poor and retaining all his good 
habits and talents, he has been strangely neglected by 
his Government up to this moment. 

In occupying the capital and other cities, strict 
orders were given that no otiicer or man should be bil- 
leted, without consent, upon any inhabitant ; that 
troops should only be quartered in the established bar- 
racks and such other public buildings as had been used 
for that purpose by the Mexican Government. Under 
this limitation, several large convents or monasteries, 
with but a few monks each, furnished ample quar- 
ters fur many Americans, and, in every instance, the 
parties lived together in the most friendly manner, as 
was attested by the mutual teare shed by many, at the 
separation. Good order, or the protection of religion, 
persons, property, and industry were coextensive with 
the American rule. The highways, also, were com- 
paratively freed from those old pests, robbers, or (the 
same thing) rancheros, who pillage, murder (often) all 
within their power, including their own priests. Every- 
thing consumed or used by our troops was as regularly 
paid for as if they had been at home. Hence Mexicans 
had never before known equal prosperity ; for even the 



Prosperity under the New Rule. 5S1 

spirit of revolution, tlie chronic disease of the country, 
had been cured for the time. 

Intelligent Mexicans, and, indeed, the great body 
of the people, felt and acknowledged the happy change. 
Hence, as soon as it was known that a treaty had been 
signed, political overtures from certain leaders were 
made to the General-in-Chief. 

Of course, it was generally understood that, on the 
ratification of peace, about seven tenths of the whole 
rank and file of our regulars and all volunteers would 
stand, ijpso facto, discharged from their enlistments, and 
also that all officers are always at liberty to resign 
their commissions after the execution of the last order. 
With the addition of ten or twenty j)er centum, to the 
American pay, it would certainly have been easy to 
organize in Mexico an army of select American officers 
and men, say of fifteen thousand (to be kept up to that 
figure by recruits from home), to serve as a nucleus, 
which, with an equal native force, would suffice to hold 
the Eepublic in tranquillity and prosperity, under a 
new Government. The plan contemplated a ])ronun- 
ciamento, in which Scott should declare himself dicta- 
tor of the Kepublic for a term of six or four years, — to 
give time to politicians and agitators to recover pacific 



582 Plan for Continuing that Rule. 

habits, and to learn to govern tliemselves. Being 
already in possession of the principal forts, arsenals, 
founderies, mines, ports of entry and cities, with nearly 
all the arms of the country, it was not doubted that a 
very general acquiescence would soon have followed. 

The plan was ultimately declined by Scott, though, 
to him, highly seductive both as to power and fortune, 
on two grounds : 1. It was required that he should 
pledge himself to slide, if possible, the Kepublic of 
Mexico into the Republic of the United States, which 
he deemed a measure, if successful, fraught with ex- 
treme peril to the free institutions of his country, and, 
2. Because, although Scott had, in his official Report, 
No. 41 (December 25, 1847, page 5G0, above), sug- 
gested the question of annexation, President Polk's 
Government carefully withheld its wishes from him 
thereon. 

The following sums of money came into the hands 
of the General-in-Chief in Mexico. About 812,000 
captured at Cerro Gordo ; $150,000 levied at the capi- 
tal, in lieu of pillage ; $50,000 (nearly) produced by 
the sale of captured Government tobacco, and two or 
three smaller sums for licenses, etc., — making a total 
of about $220,000. The following disposition was 



Scott Devolves the Command on Butler. 583 

made of this fund. A little more than $63,000 for ex- 
tra blankets and shoes, distributed gratis among the 
rank and file ; a considerable amount given to wound- 
ed men ($10 each) on leaving hospital ; about $118,000 
remitted to Washington to constitute a basis for an 
Army Asylum — for disabled men, not oflicers, and the 
remainder turned over, with the command, to Major- 
General Butler. 

The treaty of peace was signed, February 2, 1848, 
and, in time, duly ratified at "Washington, as I had in 
advance assured the Mexican authorities that it would 
be. On the 18th of the same month I received the 
President's instructions to turn over the command of 
the army in Mexico to Major-General William O. But- 
ler (which I instantly did, in complimentary terms), 
and to submit myself to a court of inquiry — and such 
a court ! — Towson, Gushing, and Belknap!* — on its 
arrival at Mexico. The same mail brought orders re- 
storing (from arrests) the three factious ofiicers — Major- 

* Brevet Brigadier-General Towson, president of tlie court, was duly 
brevetted a major-general, and Colonel Belknap brevetted a brigadier- 
general for their acceptable services in shielding Pillow and brow-beating 
Scott. The other member, General Gushing, in his pride as a lawyer and 
scholar, covered up his opinions in nice disquisitions and subtleties not 
always comprehended by his associates. 



584 ' The Conrt of Inqtiiry — Adjourns. 

Generals Wortli and Pillow, with Lieutenant-Colonel 
Duncan * — to their former connnands and honors. 
Thus a series of the greatest wrongs ever heaped on a 
successful commander was consummated — in continu- 
ation of the Jackson persecution. 

After a session of some weeks in Mexico, and some 
progress made in Pillow's case, the court was adjourned 
to meet next at Frederick, Maryland. Here the ses- 
sions were continued long enough to finish the white- 
washing of Pillow by the means alluded to. The 
charges against Scott had been withdrawn under his 
open defiance of power and its minions, when the court 
was finally adjourned and dissolved. 

* These three officers were not strictly confined to their respective 
quarters, as by law they must have been but for Scott's special indulgence 
in extending the limits of each, from the beginning of the arrest, to the 
city and its environs. 



CHAPTEK XXXYl. 

EECEPTIONS AT NEW YORK AND ELIZABETH OTHERS 

DECLINED BAD HEALTH. 

Aeeiving at Yera Cruz, on my way home, I had a 
right to select the best steamer for my conveyance, and 
there were several at anchor off the castle in the ser- 
vice of the array. But the same reason that induced 
me to select non-effectives for oarsmen, the morning 
after the battle of Lundy's Lane, and, on the same 
occasion, to take a broken-down surgeon to attend me 
toward Philadelphia, now caused me to leave the 
steamers at Yera Cruz for the benefit of the corps soon 
to follow. Accordingly, I embarked in a small sailing- 
brig, loaded down with guns, mortars, and ordnance 

stores. 

25* 



586 Becejptions — Thanks of Congress. 

Sunday morning, May 20, we were, at daylight, 
boarded by the health officer at the Narrows, and I 
engaged a rowboat to take me to my family at Eliza- 
beth. Having the Mexican disease upon me, I was in 
great want of repose and good nursing. I w'as, how- 
ever, overpowered by deputations from Kew York ; 
visited the city, and was honored with a most magnifi- 
cent reception both civic and military. 

At the instance of Scutt, and in compliment to 
Taylor, then the regular nominee of the Whigs for the 
Presidency, Scott was limited to the command of the 
Eastern Department of the army, headquarters, New 
York ; and the command of the Western Department 
was assigned to the other Major-General, Taylor, as in 
the time of the two Major-Generals, Brown and Jack 
son, in 1815, who commanded, down to 1821, the 
" Divisions " of the North and the South respectively. 

Joint Resohition ex^iressive of the Thanhs of Congress 
to Major- General W infield Scott, and the Troops 
under his command, for their distinguished Gal- 
lantry and good Conduct in the Camjpaign of 
eighteen hundred and forty-seven. 

Resolved, unanimously, hy the Senate and House 
of Rej>resentatives of the United States of America^ 



TJianks of Congress Continued. 587 

in Congress assembled, That the thanks of Congress 
be, and they are hereby, presented to Winiield Scott, 
Major - General commanding in Chief the army in 
Mexico, and through him, to the officers and men of 
the regular and volunteer corps under him, for their 
uniform gallantry and good conduct, conspicuously 
displayed at the siege and capture of the City of Yera 
Cruz and castle of San Juan de Ulloa, March twenty- 
ninth, eighteen hundred and forty-seven ; and in the 
successive battles of Cerro Gordo, April eighteenth ; 
Contreras, San Antonio, and Churubusco, August nine- 
teenth and twentieth ; and for the victories achieved in 
front of the City of Mexico, September eighth, eleventh, 
twelfth, and thirteenth, and the capture of the metrop- 
olis, September fourteenth, eighteen hundred and forty- 
seven, in which the Mexican troops, greatly superior in 
numbers, and with every advantage of position, were 
in every conflict signally defeated by the xlmerican 
arms. 

Sec. 2. Resolved, That the President of the United 
States be, and he is hereby, requested to cause to be 
struck a gold medal, with devices emblematical of the 
series of brilliant victories achieved by the army, and 
presented to Major-General Winheld Scott, as a testi- 



588 llldoi'y of the Lieutenant- Gencralcy. 

mony of the high sense entertained by Congress of liis 
valor, skill, and judicious conduct in the memorable 
campaign of eighteen hundred and forty-seven. 

Sec. 3. Resolved^ That the President of the United 
States be requested to cause the foregoing resolutions 
to be communicated to Major-General Scott, in such 
terms as he may deem best calculated to give effect to 
the objects thereof. 

Approved, March 9, 1848. 

It was enacted in 1798, that a lieutenant-general 
should be apjDointed, and General Washington accepted 
the office. The next year the grade of full general was 
provided for, and the law declared that on filling the 
latter, the former should stand repealed. On the next 
meeting of Congress, President Adams being a little 
dilatory in nominating to the new place, the Father 
of his country died a lieutenant-general, and, conse- 
quently, the act providing for that appointment was 
never repealed. 

IN SENATE. 

February 24, 1849, Hon. Mr. Fitzgerald " asked 
and obtained leave to bring in a joint resolution to 



The Lieutenant- Generalcy Continued. 589 

confer upon Major-General Winfield Scott the brevet 
rank of lieutenant-general, wliich was read and passed 
to a second reading." 

A motion to read the resolution a third time the 
same day being objected to by a single Senator, the 
subject went over for the want of time, Congress being 
within a week of dissolution. 

July 29, 1850, Hon. Mr. Clemens submitted the 
following : 

" Resolmed^ That the Committee on Military Affairs 
be instructed to inquire into the expediency of confer- 
ring by law the brevet rank of lieutenant-general on 
Major-General Winfield Scott, with such additional 
pay and allowances as may be deemed proper, in 
consideration of the distinguished services rendered to 
the Republic by that officer during the late war with 
Mexico." 

Eight days later that resolution was referred to the 
Senate's Military Committee. 

On the last day of the session (September 30, 1850), 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, Chairman, reported the follow- 
ing resolution on the same subject : 

" Resolved, That the President of the United St ates 
be, and he is hereby, requested to refer to an arm}- 



590 Lieutenant-Generalcy Recommended. 

board of officers, to be designated by him, the follow- 
ing questions, viz. : 

" Is it expedient or necessary to provide for addi- 
tional grades of commissioned officers in the army of 
the United States; and, if so, Avhat grades, in addition 
to the present organization, should be created?" 

Tills was an ingenious fetch of Mr. Davis, not 
doubting that jealousies in the service would give a 
quietus to the lieutenant-generalcy ; but when the report 
came in, though in reply to his own call, he dropped 
it as repugnant to his cherished hatred. See original 
ground of his hostility, page 198 (note), above. Mr. 
Davis, moreover, was the heir to his father-in-law's 
prejudices ( — General Taylor's), who, for a long time, 
spurned him. 

In pursuance of this request, the President of the 
United States appointed a board of officers — Generals 
Jesup (President), Wool, Gibson, Totten, Talcott, Hitch- 
cock, and Colonel Crane — who reported unanimously, 
as follows : 

" Under the first inquiry refen-ed to it, the Board 
Is of opinion that it is expedient to create by law for 
the army the additional grade of lieutenant-general, 
and that when, in the opinion of the President and 



Endeavors to Create the Manic. 591 

Senate, it sliall be deemed proper to acknowledge emi- 
nent services of officers of the army, and in the mode 
already provided for in subordinate grades, it is expe- 
dient and proper that the grade of lieutenant-general 
may be conferred by brevet." 

December IT, 1850, that report was laid before 
the Senate, and referred to the Committee on Military 
Affairs, etc. 

January 25, 1851, Hon. Mr. Shields reported a 
joint resolution in conformity with the recommendation 
of the Military Board. 

February 13, 1851, the joint resolution passed the 
Senate by 31 votes to 16, several of its friends (among 
them the Hon. Mr. Clemens) being absent. 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

March 3, 1851, an attempt was made by the Hon. 
A. H. Stephens to call up, out of turn, the joint reso- 
lution (about the ninetieth of the bills, etc., on the 
Speaker's table), when the yeas were 112, to Y2 nays ; 
several of the friends of the measure — among them the 
Hon. Mr. Gorman — happening to be out of their seats. 
The same motion was repeated the same evening, by 
the Hon. Mr. Toombs, with a like result. A change 



502 Suhject Continued. 

of some eight or ten votes would have made a two- 
thirds majority. 

IN SENATE. 

December 8, 1851, Hon. Mr. Clemens asked and 
obtained leave to bring in a joint resolution, " author- 
izing the President of the United States to confer the 
title of lieutenant-general by brevet for eminent ser- 
vices; which was read the first and second time, by 
unanimous consent, and referred to the Committee on 
Military Affairs." (This joint resolution is similar to 
the one on the same subject passed by the Senate at 
the preceding session.) 

December 23, 1851, the joint resolution was re- 
ported back to the Senate without amendment, and 
slept the remainder of the session. 

December 7, 1852, (the second day of the new 
session,) IIt)n. Mr. Clemens again brought up the same 
resolution in the Senate, and it passed that body on 
the 21st, by a vote of 34 to 12. 

The resolution having been again passed by the 
Senate was taken up in the House by the resolute 
Judge Bailey, and passed through all tlie forms of 
legislation before resuming his seat. 



A JVew Struggle for Compensation. 593 

Mr. Jefferson Davis, soon in the Cabinet, allowed 
of no intermission in his liojtility. The rank could 
not be withheld ; but he next resolved it should 
carry no additional compensation, however clearly 
embraced. Yet he permitted the question of com- 
pensation to go to tlie Attorney-General ; but coupled 
the reference with a volunteer argument of fourteen 
pages — against the claim — he, himself, being pro- 
foundly ignorant of law — for the benefit of the law- 
oliicer of the Government ! It is true he informed 
me that he had made the reference ; but I was purely 
indebted to accident for my knowledge of his legal ar- 
gument. 

To overcome this deadly enemy, my friends in the 
two Houses of Congress, including quite a roll of 
Democrats, liad again to push through all the forms 
of legislation a declaratory provision that gave me 
what might reasonably be claimed under the first 
enactment. I regret being unable to insert all the 
names of these noble Democrats : but Shields led in 
the Senate, and Clingham in the House, most trium- 
phantly. 

But I was not even yet out of the hands of Mr. 
Davis. The declaratory resolution standing alone, he 



594 Final Success. 

would certainly have caused it to be vetoed. The 
danger was perceived by all my friends, and their next 
step was to embody it in the Military Appropriation 
Bill. Another triumph. It was the last hour of the 
administration. The President and his whole Cabinet 
were, as is usual, in a drawing-room adjoining the Sen- 
ate chamber, and the Secretaries much on the floor of 
the latter. My friends appointed several of their num- 
ber to keep an eye on the engrossing clerk, lest, in 
copying a great number of amendments, he might not 
accidentally leave out my resolution. And thus it 
might be said (with due extravagance) of another old 
soldier — 

"Thrice he routed all his foes and thrice he slew the slain." 

On the inauguration of President Taylor, Scott, 
thouffh again assumins; the command of the whole 
army, continued his headquarters at !New York, not 
being called to Washington on account of the personal 
hostility of the President ; but on the succession of 
President Fillmore (in 1850) the headquarters of the 
General-in-Chief were reestablished at Washington, 
and there continued till the accession of President 
Pierce, when by request of Scott, there was another 



Nominated for the Presidency. 595 

change back to ISTew York. Here his office remained 
down to his retirement from command, in 1861, though 
his last ten months on duty — hard, disabling service — 
were spent in Washington. 

Among the incidents of this period, the autobi- 
ographer's third and greatest humiliation in politics 
must not be omitted. The first (bat slight) happened 
in the Whig Convention at Harrisburg, in 1839 ; the 
second at the Philadelphia Convention in 1848, that 
nominated Taylor. (Certain Whigs — several still liv- 
ing — may thank me that I do not here expose their vile 
tricks on that occasion ; but I have long forgiven them.) 

In June, 1852, the Whig Convention that met at 
Baltimore, to choose candidates to be run in the fol- 
lowing ISTovember, for President and Vice-President, 
after a great number of ballots finally put the autobi- 
ographer in nomination for the Presidency. His com- 
petitors, before that body, were the actual President, 
Mr. Fillmore, and Mr. Webster, Secretary of State. 
William A. Graham, the Secretary of the Navy, was 
chosen as the candidate for tlie Yice-Presidency on the 
same ticket, and General Pierce had, some time before, 
been made the Democratic candidate for the higher 
office. 



596 Indifference of Some, Hostility of Others. 

It is very generally lield tliat tlie leaders of a party 
are bound to support its regular nominations, particu- 
larly such leaders as sought tlu; honor of nomination 
by the body appointed to select candidates. Mr. Fill- 
more, who was ambitious of another executive term, 
disregarded this obligation. He, with several of his 
Cabinet, in a huif, openly eschewed the nomination. 
Mr. AVebster, already Qnorihond (he died before the 
election), acted on the occasion as if he had been cheated 
out of a rightful inheritance, and stimulated his son and 
several leading friends to take an active part on the 
side of his resentment. He failed, however, to influ- 
ence the vote of his noble State. 

At the election, Scott was signally defeated — re- 
ceiving only the votes of Massachusetts, Vermont, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee. Yirginia, his dear mother 
State, utterly repudiated him — her wiseacres preferring 
a succession or two more of pliant administrations to 
pave the way for rebellion and ruin. 

The mortification of the defeated candidate was, 
however, nearly lost in the following reflections : 

1. In the nomination and election of high function- 
aries, since the days of " modern degeneracy " {Jaclcson- 
ism), the virtue and wisdom of candidates have had but 



Consolations of Defeat. 597 

little if any weight, either in primary movements or at 
the polls. It would, therefore, be illogical to ascribe 
Scott's defeat in the election of 1852, exclusively to his 
demerits — positive or comparative. 

2. Scott was a Whig. The conflicts, however, be- 
tween Mr. Clay and President Tyler, combined with 
the ambiguous position of Mr. "Webster (" Where am 1 
to go ? "), had pretty well run the party under ground ^ 
for Taylor, though nominated on the same basis, and 
throwing out in the canvass side glances at the other 
party, was, nevertheless, a minority President. The 
outsiders — Whig office-seekers — it is true, worked like 
beavers for him ; but the split in the Democratic ranks 
— running two candidates — Cass and Yan Buren — de- 
cided the election. 

3. In 1852, Scott had not one of those adventitious 
helps. The Democrats were thoroughly united. Their 
famished o^ce-seehers, remembering their long enjoy- 
ment of the flesh-pots of Government, were desperately 
bent on the recovery of their old livings ; whereas, now 
there was nothing left for the outsiders, the universal 
Whig o^Qe-Jiolders, " a careless herd, full of the pas- 
ture," — " fat and greasy citizens " — were happy to 
follow the example of Mr. Fillmore and abstain from 



598 Thanhfnlness at the liesidt. 

auj interfei'eiice in the election — in accordance, also, 
■with the known principles and wishes of Scott. Hence 
the issue went against liira as if hy default. 

For liis political defeats, the autobiographer cannot 
too often return thanks to God. As he has said before, 
tliey proved beneiits to hini. Have thej been such to 
his country ? This is a point that maj, perhaps, here- 
after be doubted by calm inquirers. 

The following extracts present a subject that needs 
no explanation : 

" Kansas and Scott. 

" Mr. Crittenden's resolution, in relation to sending 
General Scott to Kansas, to take command of the 
United States troops there, was taken up in the Senate, 
yesterday, and warmly discussed. The resolution was 
ably advocated by Senators Crittenden, Bell, Clayton, 
and Seward, and opposed by Messrs. Brown, of Missis- 
sippi, Toucey, Mallory, and Mason. The Senate ad- 
journed without any decision on the subject. Tlie 
proposition to send General Scott to Kansas, with 
power to settle the difficulties existing there according 
to his own judgment, appears to have occurred to sev- 



Kansas Difficulties. 599 

eral persons simultaneously. It was suggested by the 
Albany Evening Journal ; and Hon. Eobert C. Win- 
throp, in a letter written early last week, in reference 
to the Kansas meeting in Faneuil Hall, says : 

" ' I cannot help thinking that, if the gallant veteran, 
who ought at this moment to have been at the head 
of the nation, and who is still at the head of its army— 
whose presence has almost as often been the pledge of 
peace, in scenes of strife, as it has been of victory on 
the field of battle— could be sent at once to Kansas, 
with full powers to command and enforce a cessation of 
lawless violence and conflict, and to put down the 
reign of terror in that region, the dangers which now 
threaten the peace of the whole country might still be 
averted.' 

" But the administration Senators profess to believe 
that the Kansas difiiculty is ' not much of a shower,' 
and the only thing they recommend is to stop agitating 
the matter, when the difficulties will settle themselves 
of their own accord. But the greatest difficulty of all 
they will find will be to stop the agitation. It must 
be agitated until the cause of the agitation shall have 
been removed." — N'ew York Times, June 12, 1856. 



600 Proj)osition to Send Scott Thither. 

" If General Scott could be sent to Kansas with in- 
structions to restore and maintain peace and order, and 
with a liberal discretion as to the means to be employed 
to effect that object, we should feel a moral certainty 
of his triumphant and glorious success. But to send 
him tliere to obey the instructions of Jeff. Davis and 
enforce the acts of the tyrannical bogus Legislature 
would be to lacerate his feelings, tarnish his proud 
fame, and probably hasten his descent to the tomb. 
As the mere instrument of Davis and Shannon, Mar- 
shal Donaldson, and ' Sheriff ' Jones, we do not see 
how he could do better than Colonel Sumner has done, 
while the employment would be entirely beneath his 
position and alien to his character. If such be the 
work contemplated, we trust a fitter instrument will 
be selected." — New York Tribune, June 12, 1856. 

During the thirteen years following the peace with 
Mexico, i)ut few incidents of historical interest to the 
autobiographer occurred. 

As belonging to the history of the times, the sub- 
joined letter may be here inserted. 

On the occasion of a threatened renewal of political 
agitations in the- Canadas, the autobiographer being in- 



The Canadas. 601 

terrogated on the subject by an eminent citizen and a 
friend, replied: 

To John C. Hamilton, Esquire. 

West Point, June 29, 1849. 

Mt Deae Sir: 

Tlie news from the Parliament of Great Britain 
this morning nmst, I think, increase the discontents of 
our neighbors on the other side of the St. Lawrence 
and the lakes not a little ; and that those discontents 
may in a few years lead to a separation of the Canadas, 
I^ew Brunswick, etc., etc., from England seems equally 
probable. 

Will those Provinces form themselves into an inde- 
pendent nation, or seek a counection with our Union ? 
I think the probability is greatly in favor of the latter. 
In my judgment the interests of both sides would be 
much promoted by annexation — the several Provinces 
coming into the Union on equal terms with our pres- 
ent thirty States. The free navigation of the St. Law- 
rence is already of immense importance to, perhaps, a 
third of our present population, and would be of great 
value to the remainder. 
26 



602 The Canadas. 

After annexation, two revenue cutters below Que- 
bec would give us a better secnritj against smuggling 
than tliirty thousand custom-house emjploycs strung 
along the line that separates us from the British pos- 
sessions on our continent. I am well acquainted with 
that line, and know a great deal about the interests 
and character of the Provincials. Though opposed to 
incorporating with us any district densely peopled with 
the Mexican race, I should be most happy to fraternize 
with our northern and northeastern neighbors. 

What may be the views of our Executive Govern- 
ment on the subject, I know absolutely nothing ; but I 
think I cannot err in saying that two thirds of our 
people would rejoice at the incoi'poration, and the other 
third soon perceive its benefits. 

Of course I am opposed to any underhanded meas- 
ures on our part, in favor of the measure, or any 
other act of bad faith toward Great Bi-itain. Her 
good Avill, in my view of the matter, is only second to 
that of the Provincials themselves, and that the for- 
mer would soon follow the latter — considering the pres- 
ent temper and condition of Christendom — cannot be 
doubted. 

The foregoing views I have long been in the habit 



" The Ganadas: 603 

of expressing in conversation. I give tliem to you for 
what tliey may be worth. 

Faithfully yours, 

WIN FIELD SCOTT. 
J. C. Hamilton, Esq. 

Mr. Hamilton, a pious son— a large contributor to 
our early history— in the Life and Times of his father,* 
and also as the editor of a recent and most accurate 
edition of the Fsderalisi^y^iil^ a splendid introduction 
and valuable notes— has had the kindness to refer the 
autobiographer to the following interesting facts in re- 
gard to the Canadas, 

In the Articles of Confederation (the 11th) it was 
provided: " Canada acceding to this Confederation, 
and joining in the measures of the United States, shall 
be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of 
this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted int.) 
the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine 

States." 

Several attempts were made to bring those Prov- 

* The exact title of this able work is— History of the E'puhlic of the 
United States, as traced in the Writinc/s of Alexander Hamilton and of 
his Ccntcmporarics, 1 vols. 8vo. 



t)04 Salt Lake E.L'jjcdUion — San Juan Island. 

inces (Upper and Lower Canada) into the Union, down 
to 1797 ; but from various causes they failed, though a 
favorite object with a large portion of the Union. 

The expedition set on foot by Mr. Secretary Floyd, 
in 1857, against the Mormons and Indians about Salt 
Lake was, beyond a doubt, to give occasion for largo 
contracts and expenditures, that is, to open a wide field 
for frauds and peculation. This purpose was not com- 
prehended nor scarcely suspected in, perhaps, a year; 
but, observing the desperate characters who frequented 
the Secretary, some of whom had desks near him, sus- 
picion was at length excited. Scott protested against 
the expedition on the general ground of inexpediency, 
and specially because the season was too late for the 
troops to reach their destination in comfort or even in 
safety. Particular facts, observed by different officers, 
if united, would prove the imputation. The Governor 
of the Territory, Mr. Gumming ; the commander of the 
troops. Brigadier - General A. S. Johnston, and our 
officers, stood above all suspicion of complicity. 

An incident occurred in 1859 on the Pacific coast 
which the President regarded as endangering not a 
little our peaceful relations with Great Britain. At the 
moment when commissioners were eno-aired in runnins: 



The Peace of the Country Jeojoardized. 605 

the boundary line between the two countries, but differ- 
ing as to which party the San Juan Island, in Puget's 
Sound, should be assigned, the question of course re- 
verted to the two paramount Governments. Briga- 
dier-General Harney, who commanded our forces in 
that quarter, was a great favorite with the five Demo- 
cratic Presidents. Full of blind admiration for his 
patrons, he had before, in Florida, hung several In- 
dians, under the most doubtful circumstances, in imita- 
tion of a like act on the part of General Jackson, in 
the same quarter, and now, as that popular hero gained 
much applause by wrenching Pensacola and all Middle 
Florida from Spain, in tim.e of peace, Harney probably 
thought he might make himself President too, by cut- 
ting short all diplomacy and taking forcible possession 
of the disputed island ! Imitations on the part of cer- 
tain people always begin by copying defects. Presi- 
dent Buchanan, however, well knowing the difference 
in power between Spain and Great Britain, kindly in- 
quired of the autobiographer (now recently a cripple 
from a fall) whether, without injury, he could go on a 
mission to Puget's Sound ? The voyage, via Panama, 
was promptly undertaken, and Scott sailed from New 
York, September 20, 1859, in The Star of the West. 



606 Scott to the Pacific — Cheered hj an Ode. 

Arriving in the Sound, near tlie British Governor at 
Victoria, a few courteous notes restored the island to 
its late neutral condition — the joint possession of the 
two parties. It is not known that the protege, Har- 
ney, was even reprimanded for his rashness. He cer- 
tainly was not recalled, although the measure was 
suggested by the writer. 

Perhaps but few readere will complain of the inser- 
tion, in this narrative, of the following poem, written 
by Mrs. Scott, then in Paris, to cheer her husband on 
in his mission of peace. An English lady, a friend of 
the authoress, begged permission to copy the poera, 
which she sent to the London Ladies' Magazine. 

Oh, Star of the West ! throw thy radiance benign, 
Unchanging and strong, on the warrior's way ! 

May the waves that surround him, by favor divine, 
Be as lustrous and calm as thine own cheering ray. 

" The hero of many a battle " goes now 

More joyfully forth on a mission of peace : 
Oh ! Star of the West ! be the prototype thou 

Of success, whose pure blessings shall never surceasa 

God prosper the barque that hath borrowed thy name ! 

Supplications, heartbom, to his throne are address'd 
For the good, and the brave, and the pious, who claim 

Our devotion — our prayers — in the " Star of the West." 



Im^pravement in the Medical Staf. 607 

They go. all unarm'd — save, with holiest views— 

The ills of ambition and strife to arrest ; 
And the spirit of St. John (loved Apostle) imbues 

Hearts, approachmg his Isle, in the " Star of the West." 

Unarm'd they will land ! 'mid contention and wrath ; 

But, on high, 'tis decreed that " Peacemakers be blest." 
They will follow, once more, their long, long ocean path, 

And regain their own shores, with the " Star of the West." 

Sail on, gallant Scott ! true disciple of virtue ! 

Whose justice and faith every danger will breast 
Nor swerve in the conflict. Heaven wiU not desert you, 

There are angels on guard 'round the " Star of the West." 

Paris, Octoier 6, 1S59. 



Of my many persevering efforts to improve the 
condition of the army, and, consequently, its efficiency, 
several proofs have been embodied in this narrative. 
The General Order reproduced at page 361, had in 
view, mainly, the protection of the rank and file 
against the abuses of commissioned and non-commis- 
sioned officers. I shall here add two other measures 
which greatly improved the comforts and usefulness of 
commissioned officers generally. 1. I claim credit lor 
a long and actiye correspondence with military com- 
mittees in the two Houses of Congress, resulting in the 
law that has given, since 1S34:, the cumulative rations 



608 Meets the Military Committee of the House. 

to our medical officers, tliat lias prevented many of the 
most valuable from resigning on obtaining high profes- 
sional skill by experience. 2. And I claim also a 
special agency in procuring the provision giving, since 
1838, to " every commissioned officer of the line or staff, 
exclusive of general officers^'' " one additional ration 
per diem, for every five years lie may have served, or 
shall serve, in the army of the United States." For 
several years in succession I had ^^■ritten and pressed 
upon the two military committees of Congress a section 
to tliat effect. Passing through Washington to the 
Cherokee country, in 1838, the Hon. Gouverneur Kem- 
ble, an intelligent friend of the army and member of 
the House Committee, called upon me on the part of 
the body to say that, although they could report the 
bill, and might cany it in the House against all oppo- 
sition ; yet if the chairman of the committee (McKay) 
and another radical member (Walter Coles) should 
speak against the measure in the House, its passage 
would be doubtful. Hence the desire that I should 
meet the committee. 

I found the chairman gruff and immovable. At 
length he grumbled out — " Have you not pay 
enough?" I rejoined: "Leave me out; leave out 



Officers' Condition Ameliorated. 609 

the generals." He added, "Agreed," and thence the 
service ration. 

By that suggestion, it may be that I have lost, up 
to the present time (twenty-six years), the current re- 
ceipts from five hundred to a thousand dollars a year, 
which would have been a great comfort to the declining 
years of an old soldier, as the bill might, in a year or 
two more, if not in 1838, have been passed — nothing 
being more reasonable — without excluding the general 
officers. 

But an increase of physical infirmities admonishes 
me to bring this narrative to a close. Happily but 
little remains to be added. 

In the Presidential canvass of 1860, it was plainly 
seen that a disruption of the Union was imminent. 
Deeply impressed with the danger, I addressed a me- 
morial to President Buchanan on the subject, of which 
the following are extracts : 

" October 29, 1860. 

" The excitement that threatens secession is caused 

by the near prospect of a Pepublican's election to the 

Presidency. From a sense of propriety, as a soldier, 

I have taken no part in the pending canvass, and, as 

always heretofore, mean to stay away from the polls. 
2G* 



610 Dangers of Secession. 

My sympathies, liowever, are with the Bell aud Everett 
ticket. AVith Mr. Lincoln I have had no communica- 
tion whatever, direct or indirect, and have no recollec- 
tion of ever having seen his person ; but cannot believe 
any unconstitutional violence or breach of law, is to be 
apprehended from his administration of the Federal 
Government. 

" From a knowledge of our Southern population it 
is my solemn conviction that there is some danger of 
an early act of rashness preliminary to secession, viz., 
the seizure of some or all of the following posts : Forts 
Jackson and St. Philip, on the Mississippi, below New 
Orleans, both without garrisons ; Fort Morgan, below 
Mobile, without a garrison ; Forts Pickens and McKee, 
Pensacola Harbor, with an insufficient garrison for 
one ; Fort Pulaski, below Savannah, without a garri- 
son ; Forts Moultrie and Sumter, Charleston Harbor, 
the former with an insufficient garrison, and the latter 
without any ; and Fort Monroe, Hampton Roads, 
without a sufficient garrison. In ray opinion all these 
works should be immediately so garrisoned as to naake 
any attempt to take any one of them, by surprise or 
coup de main, ridiculous. 

" With the army faithful to its allegiance, and the 



Inauguration to he Prevented. 611 

navy probably equally so, and with a Federal Execu- 
tive, for the next twelve months, of firmness and mod- 
eration, which the country has a right to exj>ect — 
moderation being an element of power not less than 
firmness — there is good reason to hope that the danger 
of secession may be made to pass away without one 
conflict of arms, one execution, or one arrest for trea- 
son. In the mean time it is suggested that exports 
might be left perfectly free — and to avoid conflicts all 
duties on imports be collected outside of the cities, in 
forts or ships of war." 

The inauguration of President Lincoln was, per- 
haps, the most critical and hazardous event with which 
I have ever been connected. In the preceding two 
months I had received more than fifty letters, many 
from points distant from each other — some earnestly 
dissuading me from being present at the event, and 
others distinctly threatening assassination if I dared to 
protect the ceremony by a military force. The election 
having been entirely regular, I resolved that the Con- 
stitution should not be overturned by violence if I could 
possibly prevent it. Accordingly, I caused to be organ- 
ized the elite of the Washins-ton Yoluuteers. and called 



012 Measures to Protect the Inauguration. 

from a distance two batteries of horse artillery, witli 
small detaclunents of cavalry and infantry, all re2;n- 
lars. 

In concert with Congressional Committees of ar- 
rangements, the President was escorted to and from 
the Capitol by volunteers — the regulars, with whom I 
marched, flanking the movement in parallel streets, — 
only I claimed the place immediately in front of the 
President for the fine company of Sappers and Miners 
under Captain Duane of the Engineers. To this choice 
body of men it was only necessary to say : The honor 
of our country is in your hands. 

With a view to freedom of movement, I remained 
just outside of the Capitol Square with the light bat- 
teries. The procession returned to the President's 
mansion in the same order, and happily the Govern- 
ment was saved. 

To show the new Administration that it was from 
no neglect of mine that several of our Southern forts 
had fallen into the hands of the rebels, I drew up and 
submitted the following defensive statement in March, 
1861: 



Endea'vors to Hold the Southern Forts. 013 

Southern Forts. 

October 29, 1860.-I emphatically, as has been seen, 
called the attention of the President to the necessity of 
strong garrisons in all the forts below the principal 
commercial cities of the Sonthern States, including, by 
name, the forts in Pensacola Harbor, etc. 

OMer 31.-I suggested to the Secretary of War 
that a circular should be sent at once to such of those 
forts as had garrisons, to be on the alert against sur- 
prises and sudden assaults.* 

After a long confinement to my bed, in New York, 
I came to this city (Washington), December 12. Next 
day I personally urged upon the Secretary of War the 
same views, viz.: strong garrisons in the Southern 
forts— those of Charleston and Pensacola Harbors, at 
once; those on Mobile Bay and the Mississippi, below 
New Orleans, next, etc., etc. I again pointed out the 
organized companies and the recruits at the principal 
depots available for the purpose. The Secretary did 
not concur in one of my views, when I begged him to 
procure for me an early interview with the President, 

* Permission not granted. 



614 Sovthern Foi'ta. 

that I might make one eifort more to save the forts and 
the Union. 

Bj appointment, tlie Secretary accompanied me to 
the President, December 15, when the same topics, 
secessionism, etc., were again pretty fully discussed. 
There being, at the moment, in the opinion of the 
President, no danger of an early secession, beyond 
South Carolina, the President, in reply to my argn- 
ments for immediately reenforcing Fort Moultrie, and 
sending a garrison to Fort Sumter, said, in substance, 
the time had not amved for doing so; that he would 
wait the action of the Convention of South Carolina, 
in the expectation that a commission would be appoint- 
ed and sent to negotiate with him and Congress, re- 
specting the secession of the State and the property of 
the United States held within its limits; and tliat, if 
Congress should decide against the secession, then he 
would send a reenforcement, and telegraph the com- 
manding officer (Major Anderson) of Fort Moultrie, to 
hold the forts (Moultrie and Sumter) against attack. 

And the Secretary, with animation, added : " We 
have a vessel of war (the Brooklyn) held in readiness 
at Norfolk, and he would then send three hundred 
men, in her, from Fort Monroe, to Charleston." To 



Southern Forts. 615 

which I replied, first, " That so many men could not 
be witlidrawn from that garrison, but could be taken 
from New York. Next, that it would then be too late, 
as the South Carolina Commissioners would have the 
game in their hands — by first using, and then cutting 
the wires ; that, as there was not a soldier in Fort Sum- 
ter, any handftil of armed secessionists might seize and 
occupy it," etc., etc. 

Here the remark may be permitted, that, if the 
Secretary's three hundred men had then (or some time 
later) been sent to Forts Moultrie and Sumter, Tjoth 
would now have been iu the possession of the United 
States, and not a battery, below them, could have been 
erected by the Secessionists. Consequently, the access 
to those forts from the sea would now (the end of 
March, 1861) be unobstructed and free. 

" The plan invented by General Scott to stop seces- 
sion was, like all campaigns devised by him, very able 
in its details and nearly certain of general success. 
The Southern States are full of arsenals and forts, 
commanding their rivers and strategic points. General 
Scott desired to transfer the army of the United States 
to these forts as speedily and as quietly as possible. 



616 Southern Forts. 

Tlie Southern States could not cut off communication 
between the Government and the fortresses witliout a 
great fleet, which they cannot build for yeai's — or take 
them by land without one hundred thousand men, 
many hundred millions of dollars, several campaigns, 
and many a bloody siege. Had Scott been able to 
have got these forts in the condition he desired them 
to be, the Southern Confederac}^ would not now exist."' 
• — Part of the Eulogy joronounced on Secretary Floyd ^ 
hy the Richmond Examiner^ on his reception at that 
city. 

The same day, December 15, I wrote the following 
note : 

" Lieatenant-General Scott begs the President to 
pardon him for supplying, in this note, what he omit- 
ted to say this morning, at the interview with which 
he was honored by the President. 1. Long jorior to 
tlie Force Bill (March 2, 18?>3), prior to the issue of 
his proclamation, and, in part, prior to the passage of 
the ordinance of nullification — President Jackson, un- 
der the act of March 3, 1807 — ' authorizing the em- 
ployment of tlie land and naval forces' — caused reen- 



Southern Forts. <317 

forcements to be sent to Fort Moultrie, and a sloop-of- 
war (the Natchez), with two revenue cutters, to be sent 
to Charleston Harbor [all under Scott], in order to 
prevent the seizure of that fort by the nuUifiers, and 2. 
To insure the execution of tlie revenue laws — General 
Scott himself arrived at Charleston the day after the 
passage of the ordinance of nullification, and many of 
the additional companies were then in route for the 
same destination. 

"President Jackson familiarly said at the time: 
' That, by the assemblage of those forces, for lawful 
purposes, he was not making war upon South Caro- 
lina; but that if South Carolina attacked them, it 
would be South Carolina that made war upon the 
United States.' 

" General Scott, who received his first instructions 
(oral) from the President, Jackson, in the temporary 
absence of the Secretary of War (General Cass), re- 
members those expressions well. 

'■'■Saturday niffht, December 15, 18G0." 

December 28. — Again, after Major Anderson had 
gallantly and wisely thrown his handful of men from 
Fort Moultrie into Fort Sumter — learning that, on 



618 Southern Forts. 

demand of South Carolina, there was great danger he 
might be ordered by the Secretary back to the less 
tenable work, or out of the harbor, I wrote this note to 
the Secretary of War : 

"Lieutenant-General Scott (who has had a bad 
night, and can scarcely liold up his head this morning) 
begs to express the liope to the Secretary of War — 1. 
That orders may not be given for the evacuation of 
Fort Sumter; 2. That one hundred and fifty recruits 
may instantly be sent from Governor's Island to reen- 
force that garrison, with ample supplies of ammunition 
and subsistence, including fresh vegetables, as potatoes, 
onions, turnips, etc ; 3. That one or two armed vessels 
be sent to support the said fort. 

" Lieutenant-General Scott avails himself of this 
opportunity also to express the hope that the recom- 
mendation heretofore made by hiui to the Secretary of 
War, respecting Forts Jackson, St. Philip, Morgan, 
and Pulaski, and particularly in respect to Forts Pick- 
ens and Mcliee, and the Pensacola Navy Yard, in con- 
nection with the last two named works, may be recon- 
sidered by the Secretary. 

" Lieutenant-General Scott will further ask the at- 
tention of the Secretary to Forts Jetferson (Tortugas), 



Southern Forts. 619 

and Taylor (Key West), which are wholly national — 
being of far greater value even to the most distant 
points of the Atlantic Coast and the people on the 
upper waters of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio 
Rivers, than to the State of Florida. There is only a 
feeble company at Key West for the defence of Fort 
Taylor, and not a soldier in Fort Jefferson to resist a 
handful of lillibusters or a rowboat of pirates; and the 
Gulf, soon after the beginning of secession or revolu- 
tionary troubles in the adjacent States, will swarm 
with such nuisances." 

December 30. — I addressed the President again, as 
follows : 

" Lieutenant-General Scott begs the President of 
the United States to pardon the irregularity of this 
communication. It is Sunday, the weather is bad, 
and General Scott is not well enough even to go to 
church. 

" But matters of the highest national importance 
seem to forbid a moment's delay, and, if misled by 
zeal, he hopes for the President's forgiveness. 

" Will the President permit General Scott, without 
reference to the War Department,* and, otherwise, as 

* The Secretary was already suspected. 



620 Southern Forts. 

secretly as possible, to send two liiindred and fifty re- 
cruits, from New York Harbor, to reenforce Fort 
Sumter, together with some extra muskets or rifles, 
ammunition, and subsistence. 

" It is hoped that a sloop-of-war and cutter may be 
ordered, for the same purpose, as early as to-morrow. 

" General Scott will wait upon the President at any 
moment he may be called for." 

The South Carolina Commissioners had already 
been many days in Washington, and no movement 
of defence (on the part of the United States) was per- 
mitted. 

I will here close ray notice of Fort Sumter by 
quoting from some of my previous reports. 

It would have been easy to reenforce this fort down 
to about the 12th of February. In this long delay Fort 
Moultrie had been rearmed and greatly strengthened, 
in every way, by the rebels. Many powerful new land 
batteries (besides a formidable raft) had been constructed. 
Hulks, too, were sunk in the principal channel, so as to 
render access to Fort Sumter from the sea impracticable, 
without first carrying all the lower batteries of the 
Secessionists. The difticulty of reenforcing had thus 
been increased ten or twelve fold. First, the late 



Southern Forts. 621, 

President refused to allow any attempt to be made, 
because lie was holding negotiations with the South 
Carolina Commissioners ; afterward, Secretary Holt 
and myself endeavored, in vain, to obtain a ship of war 
for the purpose, and were finally obliged to employ the 
passenger steamer the Star of the West. That vessel, 
but for the hesitation of the master, might, as is gen- 
erally believed, have delivered at the fort the men and 
subsistence on board. This attempt at succor failing, 
I nest verbally submitted to the late Cabinet, either 
that succor be sent by ships of war, fighting their way 
by the batteries (increasing in strength daily), or that 
Major Anderson should be left to ameliorate his con- 
dition by the muzzles of his guns ; that is, enforcing 
supplies by bombardment, and by iringing to merchant 
vessels, helping himself (giving orders for payment), or, 
finally, be allowed to evacuate the fort, which, in that 
case, would be inevitable. 

But before any resolution was taken — the late Secre- 
tary of the Navy making difiiculties about the want 
of suitable war vessels — another Commissioner from 
South Carolina arrived, causing further delay. When 
this had passed away, Secretaries Holt and Toucey, 
Captain Ward of the Navy and myself — with the 



622 SoutJiern Forts. 

knowledge of the President (Buchanan) — settled upon 
the employment, under the Captain (who was eager for 
the expedition), of three or four small steamers, belong- 
ing to the Coast Survey. At that time (late in Janu- 
ary), I have but little doubt, Captain "Ward would have 
reached Fort Sumter, with all his vessels. But he was 
kept back by something like a truce or armistice made 
(here), embracing Charleston and Pensacola Harbors, 
agreed upon between the late President and certain 
principal seceders of South Carolina, Florida, Louis- 
iana, etc., and this twice lasted to the end of that ad- 
ministration. 



It was not till January 3 (when the first Commis- 
sioners from South Carolina withdrew) tliat the per- 
mission I had solicited, October 31, was obtained — to 
admonish commanders of the few Southern forts (with 
garrisons) to be on the alert against surprises and sud- 
den assaults. (Major Anderson was not among the 
admonished, being already straitly beleaguered.) 

January 3. — To Lieutenant Slemmer, Command- 
inor in Pensacola Harbor : 

" The General-in-Chief directs that you take meas- 



Southern Forts. 623 

ures to do the atmost in your power to prevent the 
seizure of either of the forts in Pensacola Harbor, by 
surprise or assault— consulting first with the Command- 
er of the I^avy Yard, who will, probably, have received 
instructions to cooperate with you." (This order was 
signed by Aide-de-Camp Lay.) 

It was just before the surrender of the Pensacola 
Navy Yard (January 12) that Lieutenant Slemmer, 
calling upon Commodore Armstrong, obtained the aid 
of some thirty common seamen or laborers (but no ma- 
rines), which, added to his forty-six soldiers, made up 
his numbers to seventy-six men, with whom this meri- 
torious officer has since held Fort Pickens, and per- 
formed (working night and day) an immense amount 
of labor in mounting guns, keeping up a strong guard, 
etc., etc. 

Early in January I renewed (as has been seen) my 
solicitations to be allowed to reenforce Fort Pickens ; 
but a good deal of time was lost in vacillations. First, 
the President " thought, if no movement is made h^ 
the United States, Fort McRee will probably not be 
occupied, nor Fort Pickens attacked. In case of move- 
ment by the United States, which will doubtless be 
made known by the wires, there will be corresponding 



624 Southern Forts. 

local movements, and the attempt to reenforce ^vill be 
useless." (Quotation from a note made by Aide-de- 
Camp Lay, about January 12, of the President's reply 
to a message from me.) Kext, it was doubted whether 
it would be safe to send reenforcements in an unarmed 
steamer, and the want, as usual^ of a suitable naval 
vessel — the Brooklyn being long held in reserve at 
Norfolk for some purpose unknown to me. Finally, 
after I had kept a body of three hundred recruits in 
New York Harbor ready for some time — (and they 
would have been sufficient to reenforce, temporarily, 
Fort Pickens, and to occupy Fort McEee also) — the 
President, about January 18, directed that the sloop- 
of-war BrookljTi should take a single company (nine- 
ty men from Fort Monroe, Hampton Roads), and re- 
enforce Lieutenant Slemmer, in Fort Pickens, but 
without a surplus man for the neighboring fort, Mc- 
Ree! 

The Brooklyn, with Captain Yogdes' Company 
alone, left the Chesapeake, for Fort Pickens, about 
January 22, and on the 29th, President Buchanan, 
having entered into a quasi armistice with certain 
leading seceders at Pensacola and elsewhere, caused 
Secretaries Holt and Toucey to instruct, in a joint 



Southern Forts. ^^5 

note, the commanders of the war vessels off Pensacola 
and Lieutenant Slemmer, commanding Fort Pickens, 
to commit no act of hostility, and not to land Cap- 
tain Vogdes' Company unless that fort should he at- 
tacked ! 



It was kno^vn at the Navy Department that the 
Brooklyn, with Captain Yogdes on hoard, would he 
obliged in open sea to stand off and on Fort Pickens, 
and> rough weather, might sometimes he fifty miles 
off 'Indeed, if so at sea, the fort might have been at- 
tacked and easily carried before the reenforcement 
could have reached the beach (in open sea), where 
alone it could land. 

Eespectfully submitted, 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 



Headquarters of the Army, ) 
Washington, March 30, 1861. ) 



Washington, March 30, 

Washington, March 3, 1861. 

Deak Sir: 

Hoping that in a day or two the new President 
will have happily passed through aU personal danger. 
27 



C)2C) Of Four Plans^ ichieh Pursue? 

and find liimself instulled an honored successor of the 
great Washington, with you as the chief of his Cabinet 
— I beg leave to repeat in writing what I have before 
said to you orally — this Supplement to my printed 
" Yiews " (dated in October last) on the highly disor- 
dered condition of our (so late) happy and glorious 
Union. 

To meet the extraordinary exigencies of the times, 
it seems to me that 1 am guilty of no arrogance in lim- 
iting the President's field of selection to one of the 
four plans of procedure subjoined : 

I. Throw off the old and assume a new designation 
— the Union Party j adopt the conciliatory measures 
proposed by Mr. Crittenden or the Peace Convention, 
and, my life upon it, we shall have no new case of 
Secession ; but on the contrary', an early return of 
many, if not of all the States which have already 
broken off from the Union. "Without some equally 
benign measure, the remaining slaveholding States 
will ])robably join the Montgomery Confederacy in 
less than sixty days — when this city, being included 
in a foreign country, would require a permanent gar- 
rison of at least thirty-five thousand troops, to protect 
the Government within it. 



Of Four Plans, wJiich Pursue f 627 

n. Collect the duties on foreign goods outside the 
ports of which this Government has lost the command, 
or close such ports bj act of Congress, and blockade 
them. 

III. Conquer the seceded States by invading armies. 
No doubt this might be done in two or three years, by 
a young and able general — a Wolfe — a Desaix, or a 
Hoche, with three hundred thousand disciplined men 
[kept up to that number], estimating a third for gar- 
risons, and the loss of a yet greater number by 
skirmishes, sieges, battles, and Southern fevers. The 
destruction of life and property on the other side 
would be frightful — however perfect the moral dis- 
cipline of the invaders. The conquest completed, at 
that enormous waste of human life to tlie North and 
Northwest, with at least $250,000,000 added thereto, 
and Cui iono? Fifteen devastated Provinces! not 
to be brought into harmony with their conquerors ; 
but to be held for generations by heavy garrisons, at 
an expense quadruple the net duties or taxes which it 
would be possible to extort from them, followed by a 
Protector or an Emperor. 



628 Literary Honors and Testimonials. 

TV. Say to tlie seceded States — Wayward Sisters, 

depart in peace I 

In haste, 1 remain, 

Very truly yours, 

WINFIELD SCOTT. 
Hon. William H. Seward. 

But few contemporaries have been more highly 
complimented with literar}- distinctions and testimoni- 
als of public esteem than the autobiographer. A desig- 
nation of some of those precious muniments he can- 
not deny himself the pleasm*e of citing in this narra- 
tive: 

Nassau Hall, Princeton, conferred the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts in September, 1814, and the 
year before I had been elected a member of the Whig 
Society of the same college. 

Columbia College, New York, in 1850, conferred 
on me the honorary degree of LL.D. 

And in 1801, a like distinction was superadded by 
Harvard College, Massachusetts. 

A cripple, unable to walk without assistance for 
three years, Scott, on retiring from all military duty, 



Testimonials. 629 

October 31, 1861 — being broken down by recent 
official labors of from nine to seventeen hours a clay, 
with a decided tendency to vertigo and dropsy, I had 
the honor to be waited on by President Lincoln, at 
the head of his Cabinet, who, in a neat and aifecting 
address, took leave of the worn-out soldier. 

Testimonials followed from several States, Gov- 
ernors, and Cities, the Legislature of New Jersey, Rail- 
way, and Elizabeth ; two from Philadelphia — one 
headed by the Hon. Horace Binney, and the other by 
the Hon. Joseph P. Ingersoll — each signed by hun- 
dreds of the most substantial citizens. A similar com- 
pliment was received from St. Louis, very numerously 
signed. The City of New York, in no ordinary terms, 
heaped upon the retired soldier her distinguished 
approbation. The Chamber of Com^nerce and The 
Union Defence Committee, each passed highly com- 
plimentary resolutions — the first presented by its 
venerable President, the late Peletiah Perit, at the 
head of a Committee, and the second by the eloquent 
Judge Edwards Pierrepont, on the part of the Com- 
mittee of Defence, headed by Governor Hamilton 
Fish, Chairman. 

I deeply regret the want of space for all of those 



630 Testimonials. 

beautiful and honorable addresses, and it would be in- 
vidious to embody a part only. 

In bis first Annual Message to Congress (Decem- 
ber, 1861), President Lincoln, prompted by bis own 
kind and friendly nature, thus presented the autobi- 
ograpber to the two Houses of Congress : 

" Since your last adjournment, Lieutenant-General 
Scott bas retired from tbe bead of the army. During 
bis long life tbe nation bas not been unmindful of bis 
merits ; y«t in calling to mind bow faitbfully and ably 
and brilliantly be bas served bis country, from a time 
far back in our bistory, wlien few now living bad been 
bom, and thenceforward , continually — I cannot but 
think we are still bis debtors. I submit, therefore, for 
your consideration what further mark of consideration 
is due to him and to ourselves as a grateful people." 

W. 8. 

New York, June 5th, 1864. 



INDEX 



lE'D E X. 



Adams, John Qiiincv, President of 

U.S., correspondence of Gen. 

Scott with, relative to serving 

under Gen. Jlacomb, 211-216 

anecdote of, 215, 216 

predicts the yielding of J. C. 

Calhoun, 236 
speech of, against rc^.uction of 
Scott's pay and abolition of 
his office, 867, 368 

Alexander, Gapt. 3d Infantry, men- 
tioned and commended, 490. 

American celebration of the battle 
of New Orleans in Paris, Jan. 
8, 1816, 164-167 

Anderson, Captain Robert (afterward 
Major & Brig. Gen.), favora- 
bly mentioned bv Gen. Scott, 
329, 331, 334 

Andrews, Col., commended by Gen. 
Scoit, 517 

Armistead, BrIg.Gen., succeeds Gen. 
Taylor, 264 

Armistead, Lieut., 6th Infantry,com- 
meuded, 517 

Army officers in 1809, Capt. Scott's 
estimate of, 31-34. 

Army officers, who entered the 
army in 1808, general char- 
acter of, 34-36. 

Aroostook, the disputed territory 
of, threatened with hostile 
collisions, 337 
27* 



Aroostook difficulty, Gen. Scott 
summoned to manage, 332- 
334 

memorandum of Sec. of State & 
H. B. M. Minister Fox, con- 
cerning, 338-340 

settled by the management of 
Gen. i- cott, 338-352 



Bache, Capt. Richard, published let- 
ters of, on Gen. Scott's con- 
duct in the Black Hawk cam- 
paign. 231, 232. 

Baker, Col. E.D., commands Shields' 
brigade after latter is wound- 
ed, 447, 449. 

Barcelona, the steamer, offered to 
the " Canadian patriots," 313, 
314 
hired by Gen. Scott, 314 
sails up Nia2:ara river toward 

Lake Eriej^ 314 
the British troops and schooners 
threaten to fire upon, 314, 
315 
Gen. Scott's remonstrance con- 
cerning, 315, 316 

Barnard, Capt J. G. (since Gen- 
eral), commended, 517 

Bathurst, Earl, haughty and inso- 
lent letter of, to Sir George 
Prevost, 75-78 



034 



Index. 



BKAUUEfiARD, P. G. T., Licut. (Engi- j 
neers), coiiimeiuifd, 444, 450, 
471, 480, 501. 50,s, r>:;4 

Belen Gate, city of Mexico, canicd 
by assault, 52.'), 5'2l') 

Benjamin, Lieut., coiunieiKied, 519 
mortally uouiuled, 5'2C 

Benton, Hon. Thomas H., declara- 
tions of, conceiniiig treaty 
with Mexico, 577 
intrigues of President Polk to 
make him t>ieuteuaiit Gen- 
ei-al, 308-401 

Biddle, Capt.C. J., commended, 517 

BiDDLE, Hon. Kichard, and family 

connections, Gen. Scott's 

reminiscences of, 277-280 

speech of, in defence of Gen. 

Scott, in Congress, 280-284 

Black Hawk War, early services of 
Brig. Gen. Atkinson in, 217 
Gen. Scott sent to put down, 
218 

Black, Lieut. Col., Penn.Vol., com- 
mended by Col. Childs and 
Gen. Scott, 550 

Bliss, Lieut. Col., chief of staff to 
Gen. Taylor, 382 

BoERSTLER, Coloncl, with his entire 
force, captured near Beaver 
Dam, June 23, 1813, 93 

BoTTS, Benjamin, one of Burr's coun- 
sel, sketcii of, 13, 14 

Boyd, Brig (Jen., orders Col. Scott 
back from the pursuit of the 
enemy, 90 
assumes the chief command of 
the Niagara frontier, 93 

Brady, General, with Generals 
Worth, Wool, and Eustis, aids 
Gen. Scott in pacifying the 
citizens of tlie Northern fron- 
tier, 309 

British celebration of the burning 
of Washington, at Paris, in 
181.5, 162, 163 

Broadnax, General, of Virginia,Gen. 
Scott wi'ites to, to dissuade 
him from uullilication, 245 



Brock, Gen., funci-al of, at Fort 

George, 67 
Lieut. Col. Scott requests Fort 

Niagara to fire minute guns 

during funeral of, in honor 

of a fallen hero, 67 
pistols presented to Gen. Scott 

in I860, 68 
Brooke, Maj.Gen., anecdote of, 425, 

note 
Brooklyn, Sloop of War, held in 

reserve for some unknown 

purpose, 624 
finally sent to Pickens, but oi'- 

dered not to laud the troops 

unless the fort was attacked, 

625 
Brooks, Lieut., commended by Gen. 

Scott, 480, 511, .519 
Brown, Mnj. (ien., in command on 

the Niagara frontier, 118 
directs Gen. Scott to open a 

camp of instruction, 118 
makes a descent on Fort Erie, 

July 3, 1814, 121-123 
joins the advance and bridges 

the Chippewa, July 5, 1814, 

127 
orders forts George and Messas- 

sauga invested, 136 
attem])ts a stratagem, 136, 137 
is misled by a report from a 

militia colonel, 137 
orders (Jen. Scott to find the 

enemy and beat him, 138 
is wounded at battle of Lundy's 

Lane, 145 
his death in February, 1828, 208 
Buchanan, James, President of U. 

S., memorial of (Jen. Seott to, 

in October, 1860, 6(»9-6ll 
attention of, called to the ne- 
cessity of strong garrisons to 

Southern forts, 613 
thinks there is no danger of an 

early secession, 614 
urgent afipeal of (Jen. Scott to, 

ibr early reinforcements of 

the forts, 614. 615 



Index. 



635 



BtJcnANAN, James — 

note of Gen. Scott to, Dec. 15, 

616. 617 
note of Gen. Scott to, Dec. 30, 

619, 620 
truce agreed upon by, with the 

secedeis, 622-624 
vacilhUion of, and hesitation to 
reinforce Fort.s Pickens and 
McKee, 628, 624 

BuLAVER, Sir Henr.v,brilliant allusion 
of, to the campaign, 538, 539 

Burnet, Bishop, introduction, ix 

Burnett, Col., mentioned and com- 
mended, 494 

BuRNHAM, Major, N. Y. V., com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 446 

Burr, Aaron, trial of, for high trea- 
son, witnessed by Mr. Scott, 
12-17 

Butler, Maj.Gen. William 0., move- 
ments of, 554, 5r)6, 565 
supersedes Gen. Scott in the 
command of the army in 
Mexico, 573, 583 

Butler, Col, mentioned and com- 
mended, 494 

Cadwallaper, Brig. Gen., move- 
ments of his brigade, 474, 
475, 478, 479,48n, 488, 489, 
517, 563, 567, 570 

Cesar's commentaries on the Gallic 
Wars, introdudion, xi 

Caldwell, Major, commended, 517 

Calhoun, John C, referred to, 17, 



driven to adopt the dogma of 
State rights, by President 
Jackson, 183 

Callendkr's, Lieut. (Artillery), bat- 
tcrv commended by Geii. 
Scott, 472 

" Canapian Patriot " War, the, 
brief sketch of events in, 305- 
3(17 
action of Gen. Scott in sup- 
pressing, 307 

Caroline, burning of the, 306 



Casey, Capt. Silas (since General), 
wounded at Chepultepec and 
commended, 516 
Cass, Gen. Lewis, letter of, to Gen. 
Scott on his couise with the 
Indians, 230 
letter of Gen. Scott to, co"i- 
municating his Preston letter, 
237-244 
Cato, the censor's, history of the 
first and second Punic Wars, 
ijitroduction, xi 
Cerro Gordo, battle of, 436-451 
Chandler, Gen., captured at Stony 

Creek, June 6, 91, 92 
Chan.sing, Rev.W. E., D. D., eulogy 

of, on Gen. Scott, 352-354 
Chapman, Captain, 5th Infantry, 

commended, 518 
Charge, as a military phrase, de- 
fined, 132, 133 
Chase, Captain, commended. 518 
Chauncev's, Commodore, strife with 
Sir James Yeo in building 
wai'-ships, 1 1 3 
Chepultkpkc, capture of, 511-521 
Cherokees, Gen. Scott ordered to 
superintend the removal of, 
317 
the condition, civilization and 
relations of, with the whites 
of North Carolina, Tennessee, 
Alabama and (Georgia, 318, 
319 
Gen. Scott's orders to the white 
troops concerning, 320-322 
Gen. Scott's address to the, o23- 

325 
good conduct of the Georgians 

in removing, 326 
removal of, ellected without 
bloodshed or serious sufler- 
ing, 327-330 
Chetes, Langdon,of South Carolina, 
Mr. Scott's recollections of, 
22 
Childs, Bvt. Col. ,3d Infantrv, com- 
mended, 439, 4;0, 453, 460, 
550 



63G 



Index. 



Chippewa, battle of, fought July 5, 
1814, 127-132 
its olfcct on the American peo- 
ple, i;J4 

CiiOLKKA, Asiatic, attacks troops en 
route to Black Hawk War, 
218, 21'.) 
Gen. Scott acts as physician in, 
218, 21<.l 

Ciirystlkk's Field, disaster at, Nov. 
11. 109 

OiCEKo'.s letter to Lueeeius, luxiiif; 
him to write an aeeoiiiit ol' 
his eonsiilship, iiUrodudtvn, 
xii, xiii, xiv 

Clarendon, Lord, introduction, ix 

Clemens, Hon. Jer., resolutions of- 
fered by, on the Lieut Cen. 
question, 58'.), 591, 592 

Oockhlkn, Admiral, a freebooter, 162 
anecdote of, 102, 7iofe 

CoLiMDiA Collei^e, confers degree 
of LL. D. on Gen. Scott, 
1850, 028 

Contreras, battle of, account of, 
472-470 

Convicts in the city of Mexico fire 
on U. S. ti'Oops, .'')2'.i 

Court Martial for the trial of Capt. 
Scott, 37, 40 

Crane, Col. I. B., 1st Artillery, com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 330 

Davis, Jefier.son, attempts to prevent 
Gen. Scott's receiving the 
\iu\k of Lieut. General, 589, 
590, 593 

{)erniits and directs the pirating 
and nnitilation of(ien. Scott's 
Tactics and Military Insti- 
tutes, 258, 259 
Dearborn, Maj. (Jen., in command 
of the Niagara Irontier, 80 

sends Maj. (len. Lewis to Stony 
Creek, 91 

Is recalled from his command 
by the war department, 93 

holds a council with the Seneca 
and other Indian chiefs, 95 



DeIIart, Capt. W. C. (Artillery), 
connnended by Gen. Scott, 
551 

Derby, Lieut., commended by Gen. 
Scott, 450 

Difficulties encountered by writers 
of the histoiy of their own 
times, introdudion, xii 

Dimick, Major (afterward Colonel), 
mentioned and commended 
by Gen. Scott, 481, 491 

Drayton, William, of South Caroli- 
na, Mr. Scott's recoilectiona 
of, 22 

Drum, Capt. (Artillery), commended, 
619 
mortally wounded, 526 

Dru.mmonp, Lieut. Gi-n. Sir Gordon, 
returns to the field at Lundy's 
Lane, bivouacks on it and 
claims a vietory, 146 

Du^•CAX, Lieut. Col., of Worth's Di- 
vision, commended by Gen. 
Scott, 49(» 

DuxcAN, Lieut. Col., restored to com- 
mand Ijy uriler of Fres. Polk, 
584 

Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1850, ex- 
tract from, on Lamartine'.s 
history of the French revolu- 
tion of 1848, introdudion, 
xvii, xviii, xix 
May 1828,MaeauIay's views on 
condensation in historic an- 
nals, iritrodiic/ion, xi.v, xx 

Edwards, Lewi.-;, Capt. Scott's letter 
to, in 1811, 41, 42 
sketch of, 42 

Eveuett, Edward, Gov. Mass., address 
of, to ticn. Scott, 334, 335 

EwELL, Lieut. K. S., mentioned and 
eommended, 496 

Fairfield, John," Gov. of Maine, 
Gen. Scott's intercourse with, 
338, 343 
dinner party of, at Senator 
Evans', 344, 345 



Index. 



637 



Fairfield, John — 

message of, 346, 347 
acqiiie!?ceiice of, in (Jen. Scott's 
pvoi)osition, 351 

Finance, system of. organized for 
the army in Mexico by Gen. 
^^cott, n53-5'72 

L'loyd, John B., Secretary of War, 
Utah expedition of, fraudu- 
lent, 604 
note of Gen. gcott to, 617-619 

FoKCED Contributions, impossibility 
of supporting the army in 
Mexico liy, 552 

FoRSYTii, Hon. Jolm, joint memoran- 
dum of, with Mr. Fox, 338- 
341 

Fort George, capture of. by Col. 
Scott, 87-91 

Foster, Lieut. (Engineers), (since 
Gen.), mentioned and com- 
mended, 501 

Foster, William S., Colonel 4th 
Infantry, commended by 
Gen. Scott, 330 

Fox, H. S., H.B.M. minister's mem- 
orandum, with Mr. Forsyth, 
338, 341 

French and German memoirs 
{■pour scrvir u Vhidoire), 
introduction, xi 

French Mills, American army win- 
ter at, 109 

Gaines, Maj. Gen., conduct of, 
toward the Florida Indians, 
261, 262 

Gaines, Maj. J. P., mentioned and 
commended, 502, 507, 5:-!3 

Gantt, Lieut., 7th Infantry, killed 
at Chepultepec, 518 

Gardner, Bvt. Lst Lieut., commend- 
ed by Gen. Scott, 445, 448 

Graham, Lieut. Col., mentioned and 
commended by Gen. Scott, 
471, 489 

Grayson, Capt., chief commissary, 
commended by Gen. Scott, 
501, 507, 538 



I Greenway, Dr. .James, l^rief bio- 
graphical sketch of, 4-6 

Hagner, Lieut. (Ordnance), com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 446, 
45(1, 501, 510, 519, 533 

Hamilton, Gov. of S. C, anecdote 
of, 249, 250 

Hamilton', John C, letter of Gen. \ 
Scott to, and extract from 
articles of confeder;ition by, 
on annexation of Canada, 
601-003 

Hamilton, Lieut. Schuyler, men- 
tioned and commended, 501 

Hammond, Lieut., connnended, 519 

Hampton, Maj. Gen., Gen. Scott's 
reminiscences of, 50 
Ids interview with Dr. Eustis, 
Secretary of War, 51 

Hanson, Hon. A. C, of Maryland, 
his speech justifying Earl 
Bathurst, 78-81 

Hargrave, James, defended by 
Scott when attacked by a 
drunken bully, 7 

Harney, Col. (afterward General), 
his movements, 439, 440, 
445, 465, 470, 478, 495 

Harvard College confers degree of 
LL. D. on Gen. Scott, 1861, 
628 

Harvey, Lt. Col., portiait of his wife 
returned by Col. Scott, 99 
note concerning, 99, 100 

Harvey, Sir John, Lieut. Gen., 
Gov. New Brunswick, Gen. 
Scott's reminiscences of, 342, 
343 
Gen. Scott's correspondence 
with, 347-352 

Hays, Col. (Texan Kangers), pur- 
sues and skirmishes with 
the guerilla priest Jarauta, 
568 

Hebert, Pliil., Lieut., commended, 
520 

Hitchcock, Lt. Col. E. A. (afterward 
Maj. Gen.), mentioned and 



638 



Index. 



commended, 423, 449, 500, 
507, 5o3 

HooKKR, Capt. Joseph, commended, 
5ly 

Howard, Lt. Col., mentioned and 
commended, 494, 518, 523 

HoGER, Cajtt., mentioned and com- 
mended, 501, 611, 512, 519, 

Humboldt, IJaron Von, visits (Jen. 
h'eott repeatedly, IGl 

Indian testimony in Indian courts, 

among tiie Creeks, 45 
Indians at Rock Kiver, Scott's 
mana{;ement of, 221, 222 
honorable conduct of some, pris- 
oners, 222, 223 
incident relative to one, a mur- 
derer, 223-226 
Keokuk, the able chief of, 223, 

227 
conference with, 226, 227 
festival and dances of, 228, 229 
Infidelity in William and Mary 

College in 1805, &e., 10 
Ingersoll, Chas. J., speech of in de- 
fence of (ien. Scott's office 
of(leneral-in-Ciiief, 367, 368 
reminiscences of, by Gen. Scott, 
368, 369 
Irwin, Capt., Chief Q. M., commend- 
ed by Gen. Scott, 501, 507, 
533 

Jackson, Gen. Andrew, history of 
the controversy between him 
and (Jen. Scott, 196-203 
Gen. Scott's letter to, 201 
his letter to (ien. Scott, 202 
gives (Jen. Scott carte blanche 
to thwart the designs of the 
iiiiUilicrs, 2;i4, 235 
manifests his dislike for Gen. 

Scott at his own table, 260 
orders (Jen. Jesup to succeed 
(Jen. Scott, and Scott to be 
brought before a court of in- 
quiry, 264 



Jackson, Gen. Andrew — 

sketch of his civil and military 
career by (Icn. Scott, 265-269 
will not approve or set aside 
the finding of the court of 
inquiry in the case of Gen. 
Scott, "273, 274 
review of his arrest of Judge 
Hall, by (Jen. Scott, 284-299 
his death annouiieed at West 
Point by Gen. Scott, 300 
Jackson, Lieut., coniniendcd, 520 
Jacobs, Capt., and Young Brant, at- 
tempt to kill Lieut. Col. 
Scott, 64-66 
Jalata abandoned by the Mexicans 
on Scoit's approacii, 452 
delay at, for reinforcenients,452 
Jay, William, criticisms on (Jen. 
Scott's management in the 
Mexican War, 428 
criticisms on Scott's guerilla 
order considered, 574, 575 
Jefferson, Thomas, President of 
the U.S., submits Burr's case 
to Congress, 16 
issues a j)roclamation, July 2, 

1807, intei dieting our har- 
bors and rivers to all British 
vessels, 18 

restores prisoners captured by 

Scott, 21 
interview of Mr. Scott with, in 

1808, 25 

broached the doctrine f^f •^fate 
Rightx from oppt/.sition to 
Washington, 181, 182 
Jesup's, General, battalion, success 
of, at Lundy's Lane, 141 

scatters the Creeks l)y a too has- 
ty movement, 263 

denounces (Jen. Scott to the 
President, 263 

is appointed his successor, 264 

fails signally, is removed, and 

retracts his charges against 

Scott, 264 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, views of, in 

relation to contcm]jorary bi- 



Index. 



639 



Ography, &c., in his life of 
Addison, introduction, xvi, 
xvii 

JoHKSON, Lieut. Edward, commend- 
ed, 518 

Johnston, Lieut. Col. A. Sydney, 
movements of, 554, 556 

Johnston, Col. Joseph E., commend- 
ed by Gen. Scott, 617 

Kearny, Philip, Capt. (afterward 
Major General), commended 
bv Gen. Scott, 432, 471, 495, 
496 

Kendrick, Capt. (since Professor). 
(4th Artilleiy), commended 
by Gen. Scott, 550 

Kktes, Lieut. Erasmus D. (afterward 
Gen.), commended by Gen. 
Scott, 330, 334 

King, Rufus, resolution of, for grad- 
ual emancipation, 187-189 

KiRBT, Major E., mentioned and 
commended, 502, 507, 533 

Kosciusko, Gen. Scott corresponds 
with, 160 

Lafayette, General, visited by Gen. 

Scott, 160 

Laidley, Lieut. (Ordnance), com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 446, 
450, 451 

Lay, Lieut., mentioned and com- 
mended, 501, 507, 533 

Lee, R. E., Captain (afterward Colo- 
nel), mentioned and com- 
mended, 423, 432, 444, 446, 
450, 471, 473,479, 480, 484, 
485, 500, 607, 508, 533 

Leigh, Hon. Benj. Watkins, sent as 
a conmiissioner to S. C. 246 
letter of, to E. D. Mansfield, 

255, 257 
mistakes of, at the Harrisburg 
Convention, 356, 360 

Lincoln, Abraham, President U. S., 
Gen. Scott's measures tJ se- 
cure the safe inauguration of, 
611, 612 , 



I Lincoln, Abraham, President U.S., 
statement to the administration 
of, concerning Scott's previ- 
ous action, 612, 625 

Lindsay, Colonel William, 2d Ar- 
tillery, commended by Gen. 
Scott, 330 

Long Saut, the, rudeness of a 
Catholic Priest at, 69 

Longstreet, Lieut., 8th Inf., com- 
mended, 518 

Losses of U. S. troops between 
Puebla and Mexico, 630, 631 

Losses of Mexican army, 531, 532 

LovELL, Mansfield, Lieut., com- 
mended, 519 

Lowndes, William, of South Caro- 
lina, Mr. Scott's recollections 
of, 22 

Ludlow, Edmund, intvoductlon, ix 

Lundy's Lane, battle of, account of, 
139-146 



Macomb, Major Gen., intrigues of 
Mr. Rush and others to se- 
cure his appointment as Gen- 
eral-in-chief, 209, 211 
he is appointed, 211 
objection of Gen. Scott to serve 

under him, 211, 216 
presides over the court of in- 
quiry in Gen. Scott's case, 
270 

McClellan, Lieut. George H. (after- 
ward Major General), com- 
mended, 450, 501, 534 

McClure, Brig. Gen., evacuates 
Fort George, and burns New- 
wark, New Niagara, 105 

McIntosh, Lt. Col., has a skirmish 
with the enemy near Jalapa, 
459 

McKiNSTRY, Justus, Capt., A. Q. M., 
commended, 534 

Madison, Bishop, his injudicious 
maiuigement in regard to in- 
fidel works, 10 

Magruder, Captain (artillery), com- 



640 



Index. 



mended by Gen. Scott, 172, 
473, 520 

Makbois, M. nar))o, Gen. Scott's ac- 
quaintance with, Idl, 102 

Marcy, Gov. W. L., accompanies 
Gen. Scott to the Jsiagura 
frontier, ."OS 

Maksiiai.l, IJrif,'. (ien., at Jalapa 
with a colnnni of sick troops, 
Dec. 22, 1847, 502 

Mautial Law order of Gen. Scott 
pubh.slied in Mexico, 540- 
549 

Martin, Luther, one of the counsel 
for Burr's defence, 13 

Mason, Winfiehl, heir of John 
Winliehl, 3 
married a daughter of Dr. 
Greenway, 3 

Mason, Capt. (Engineers), commeiid- 
ed by (ion. Scott, 470, 501 

May, John F. references to, 11, 12, 
note 

Medal, gold, presented to Gen. Scott 
by President Monroe by or- 
der of Congress, 191 
left in the City Bank of New 
York, by the robbers. 192, 
193 

Merchant, Lieut., 8th Inf., com- 
mended, 518 

Mkxico, good order in, under Gen. 
Scoti's administration, 580, 
581 
presidency of, offered to Gen. 

Scott., 581, 582 
city of, surrendered, 527 

Militia of New York, cowardice of, 
at Lewiston, Oct. 12, 1812, 
00 

Miller, Capt. (4th Artillery), com- 
mended by (Jen. Scott, 551 

MoLiNOS del Key, battle of, report 
ol' by Gen! Scott, 505-507 

MoN'TESQi/'iEu's LcUres Persaues, 
, smallness of. int. xvii 

Montgomery, Mnjor, irth luf, com- 
mended, 518 

Morgan, Col., ordered to move for- 



ward and occupy Contreras, 
474, 478, 493, 494 
disabled by a wound at Churu- 
busco, 523 
Moses and Joshua, as autol)iogr,iph- 
ic writers, iiUroduclion, xi 

Napoleon, remark of, after liis ab- 
dication, introchtdion, xx 

Nares, life of Lord Burleigh, size 
of introduction, xvii 

Nassau Hall, Princeton, confers de- 
gree of A. M. on Gen. Scott, 
1814, 028 

Nicholas, Judge S. S., essays of, 
reviewed bv Gen. Scott, 284- 
289 

Ogilvie, James, as a teacher and 
lecturer, 8, 9 

Page, Captain, commended, 519 

Pain, Farmer, the Kobinson Crusoe 
of the(!ut of Canso, account 
of, 82-85 

Paine, Mr., a voliiiiteeriii the Black 
Hawk war, incident of, 220 

Patterson, Major General, assumes 
command of division, though 
sick, 432, 440 

Payne, Major 11. M., Act. lusp. 
(ieneral, commended by Gea. 
Scott, 329 

Peace, letter and brief essay of Gen. 
Scott on, 377-379 

Penon, the, a fortified mound of, 
great height, commanding 
the eastern approach to Mex- 
ico, 408, 470 

Perote, Castle of, surrendered to 
Scott without tiring a gim, 452 

Petigru, James L., of S. C, referred 
to, 244 

Pickett, Lieut., 8th Inf., commend- 
ed, 518 

Piekck, Brig. Gen. Franklin, ar- 
rives nt Puebia with 2,500 
men, 459, 405 



Index. 



641 



PiEKCE, Brig Gen. Franklin — 

movements at Contreras, &c., 
483. 484, 485, 494 
Pillow, Gen. Gideon J., procures 
Mr. Polk's nomination, 416 
Gen. Scott's estimate of his 

character, 416 
ordered to attack at Cerro 

Gordo, 434 
is wounded in that battle, 43*7, 

440 
brigade compelled to retire m 

that battle, 446 
brings up a reinforcement ol 

1,000 men, 459 

movements of division of, 468, 

469,471. 472,474,483,487. 

488, 495, 509, 510, 512, 513 

movements of his division, 514, 

517, 520 
relieved from arrest and re- 
stored to command by order 
of President Polk, 584 
Plan del Kio. Mexico, enemy con- 
front Twiggs at, 431, 432 
a valley three miles from Cerro 

Gordo, 432 
topography of, 444 
Pliny, the younger's, letter to Taci 

tus, introduction, xiv-xvi 
Polk, James Knox, President of 
U. S., Scott's estimate ot, 
380 
duplicity and intrigues of, 398- 

401 
nomination of, procured by 

Gen. Pillow, 416 
perfidy of, 415-418 
PoLVBius an autobiographer, in- 
troduction, xi 
Porter, Lieut., commended, 519 

wounded, 526 
Preston, Hon. William C, letter of 
Gen. Scott to, on nullifica- 
tion, 239-244 
sketch of, 237 
Prevost, Lieut. Gen. Sir George, 
discourtesy of, 71 
retaius prisoners whom he be- 



lieves to have been bora 
British subjects, 72 
PuEBLA, stay of the army at, 453- 
455 
besieged by Santa Anna, but 
the besieging party repulsed, 
350 
Punishments in the army, arbitrary 
and illegal. Gen. Scott's order 
concerning, 361-366 



t^UEENSTOWN Heights, battle of, 56- 

63 
Quitman, Major Gen., movements 

of the division of, 468, 469, 

478, 483, 497, 512, 513 
movements of his division, 515, 

617, 522, 524, 525, 526, 527, 

628', 536 

Ransom, Col., commands a brigade 

at Contreras, 580, 493, 517 
Reno, Lieut. (Ordnance), (afterward 
General), commended, 494, 
519, 534 
Retz, Cardinal de, apology of, for 
writing his own memoirs, in- 
troduction^ vii 
Rhett, T. G., Lieut., A. C. S., com- 
mended bv Gen. Scott, 551 
RiALL, Major Ge'neral, reported as 
returning to Lewiston, 137 
is met at Lundy's Lane, 139 
is wounded and captured in the 
biittle. 141, 148 
Richmond Examiner, testimony of 
to what would have resulted 
had Scott's plins been adopt- 
ed, 615, 616 
KiLEY, Colonel (afterward General), 
criticised and commended by 
Gen. Scott, 417, 446, 448, 
472, 473, 478, 479, 480, 491 
movements of his l)rigade, 492 
Ringgold, Major, remark of, at tlie 

fire in Charleston, 251 
Ripley, Brig. Gen., takes command 
at Lundy's Lane, when Scott 
is w^ouuded, 145 



(i42 



Index. 



Ripley, Brig. (Jen. — 

abandons the field, 14G 

Ripley, Lient. (.since (icneial), 2d 
Artillery, connnended by 
Gen. Scott, 440 

Robinson, David, law tutor of Mr. 
Scott, 11, 12 

UowE, Captain ('.itli Infantry), com- 
mended i)y (ien. Scott, 651 

UuFFiN, Thomas, incident of, 11, 12, 
note 

San Augustin, recounoissances to the 

left of, 471 
San Cosnie, gate of, City of Mexico, 

carried by lussault, 522-524 
Santa Anna, President of Mexico, 
attacks Taylor at Agua 
Nueva, and Bucna Vista, 
411, 412 

states his force at 25,000 men, 
411 

his real force only 14,048, 412 

liis remarks in regard to Gen. 
Scott, 417,418 

estimate of his character by 
Gen. Scott, 4(i6 

note offering an armistice sent 
to, by Gen. Scott, 499 

violates the armistice, 504 

a fugitive, 5ii2 

besieges Puebla, but is repulsed, 
55U 
Scott, Henry L., Lieut, and Aide-de- 
Camp, commended by Gen. 
Scott, 330, 423, 450, 501, 
507, 533 
Scott, Mrs. Ann Mason, her mar- 
riage in 1780, 1 

her ancestry and family, 3 
Scott, Mrs. M. M., poem of, on her 
husband's voyage to the Pa- 
cific to settle the San Juan 
Island difficulty, (iOG, 607 
Scott, William, his ancestry, 1, 2 

marries Ann Mason, in 17S0, 1 

a lieutenant and captain in the 
Revolutionary army, and a 
successful farmer, 2 



Scott, William — 

dies when Winfield is six years 
of age, 2 
Scott, Winfield, his determination 
to wiite memoirs of his own 
times, how occasioned, in- 
irodnrCioii, xxi 

difficulties and delays encoun- 
tered, hitrocf'ution, xxi 

object of his memoirs, bdioduc- 
tion, xxi 

his beau ideal oi the size proper 
for bis memoirs, introduction, 
xxii 

date and place of his birth, 1 

school and college life, 6 

protects his early teacher, Jas. 
Hargravc, from a drunken 
bully, 7 

his recollections of James Ogil- 
vie, another teacher, 8, 9 

enters William and llary Col- 
lege in 1S05, 9 

studies pursued in college, 9 

present at the trial of Aaron 
Burr for high treason, 12-17 

volunteers as a coast guard, 
July 3, 1807, 19 

captures two midshipmen and 
six oarsmen, 20 

meets Captain Fox, one of 
these midshipmen, in 1816, 
21 

goes to South Carolina in Oc- 
tober, 1807, intending to 
practise law in Charleston, 
22 

his reminiscences of South Ca- 
rolina statesmen, 22, 23 

embarks for Washington, via 
New York, to seek a com- 
mission, 24 

interview with President Jef- 
ferson in 1808, 25 

returns to Petersburg, Va., to 
practise law, 26 

his reminiscences of Judge 
Taylor, 26, 27 

commissioned captain of light 



Index. 



643 



or flying artillery, May 3, 

1808, 29 

ordered to Norfolk to embark 

for New Orleans, 29 
sails for New Orleans Feb. 4, 

1809, 30 

reaches New Orleans April 1, 
1809, 30 

returns to Virginia in the sum- 
mer of 1809, 31 

rejoins the army in November, 

1809, 31 

his estimate of the leading 

army officers of that date, 

31-34 
tried by court-martial, and 

found partially guilty, 37-40 
his statement of the case, and 

remarks on the findings, 37- 

40 
returns again to Virginia in 

1810, and is domesticated 
with Hon. Benj. Watkins 
Leigh, 41 

his letter to Lewis Edwards, 
42, 43 

rejoins the army at Baton 
Rouge in the autumn of 1 8 1 1 , 
43 

tour through the Indian coun- 
try, 44, 45 

appointed judge advocate in the 
trial of a colonel, 45 

member of General Hampton's 
staff, 46 

sails for Baltimore as one of 
General Hampton's suite, 
May 20, 1812, 47 

narrowly escapes capture off 
the Capes of Virginia, 48 

promoted to a lieutenant colo- 
nelcy, June 21, 1812, 50 

reminiscences of Major-General 
Hampton, 51 

ordered to Philadelphia to col- 
lect and prepare troops for 
the field, 52 

obtains orders to proceed to 
Niagara, 53 



Scott, Winfield — 

reflections on war, 53 

reports to Brig. Gen. Smvth, 
near Buffalo, Oct. 4, 1812, 
54 

aids in cutting out two British 
vessels at Fort Eric, C5, 56 

moves down to Lewistoii, Oct. 
11, and reports to Major- 
Gen. Van Reusselaer, 56 

applies to share in the expedi- 
tion to storm the heights of 
Queenstown, but is refused, 
unless he will serve under 
Lieut. Col. Van Rensselaer, 
his junior, which he declines 
to do, 56, 57 

he volunteers, when the other 
officers are disabled, to cross 
and take command, and 
fights the battle of Queens- 
town heights, 57-63 

twice repulses the enemy, and 
forms to await reinforce- 
ments, 59, 60 

the militia refusing to cross and 
his troops being unwilling to 
retreat, he resolves to make 
as desperate a resistance as 
possible, but is finally over- 
powex'cd and compelled to 
surrender, 61, 62 

is marched to Newark (since 
Niagara) as a prisoner, 63. 

his rencontre with the Indians 
Jacobs and Brant, 64-66. 

his rescue by Captain Coffin 
and the guard, 66 

his interview with General 
Shcaffe, 66, 67 

requests Fort Niiigara to fire 
minute guns in honor of Gen. 
Brock, 67 

Gen. Brock's pistols presented 
to him in 1860 by W. E. 
Baldwin, 68 

taken as a prisoner to Prescott, 
C. W., 69 

courtesv of Colonel Pearson 



644 



Index. 



and other British officers to, 

70, 71 

discourtesy of Lieut. Gen. Sir 
Georjic I'revost, 71 

remonstrates apainst his re- 
taining and sending to Eng- 
land fur trial prisoners whom 
he declares born British sub- 
jects, 72 

on his return to Washington, 
Jan. 181o, reports this con- 
duct to the secretary of war, 
73, 74 

at his solicitation. Congress 
passes an act of retaliation, 75 

in May, 1813, he selects and 
confines an equal number of 
English soldiers as hostages, 
75 

finds in 1815 that the British 
government have released 
the retained soldiers, notwith- 
standing their threats, 81 

sails from Quebec for Boston, 
Nov. 20, 1812 

enters the (iut of Canso, Dec. 
13, 1812, 82 

his account of Mr. Pain, a 
second Robinson Crusoe, 82- 
85 

obtains supplies from farmer 
Pain, 85 

arriving in Washington, in 
Jan. 1813, finds himself ex- 
changed, 86 

appointed adjutant-general with 
rank of colonel, and pro- 
moted to the colonelcy of his 
regiment in March, 1813, Sti 

reports to Major tien. Dear- 
born on the Niagara frontier, 
and organizes his statf for 
ettective service, 87 

leads the Ibrlorn hope in the 
capture of Fort George, 87- 
91 

has his collar-bone broken and 
is bruised by the explosion 
of tlie magazine, 89 



Scott, Winfield — 

after the capture of the Ibrt, is 
recalled from the pursuit of 
the enemy by Brig. Gen. 
Boyd, '.to 

commands the rear guard on the 
retreat from i^tony Creek to 
Fort George, 92, 93 

makes the tarewell address to 
Gen. Dearborn, 93 

leads several skirmishes, &c., 
94, 95 

opens the council with the In- 
dians, 95 

instructs the Indians not to kill 
prisoners or scalp the dead, 
96 

resigns the adjutant-gencralcy 
about midsummer, 98 

in connection with Commodore 
Chauncey makes a descent 
upon Burlington, and after- 
ward upon York (now To- 
ronto) and captures the ene- 
my's stores, 98, 99 

sends (ieneral Sheaffe his pub- 
lic and private papers, and 
Lieut. Col. Harvey the minia- 
ture of his wife, 99 

left at Fort George with a small 
force by Wilkinson, 100 

makes great exertions to put it 
in a state of defence, 100 

finds the enemy have abandon- 
ed the peninsula, and ai)plies 
to Gen. Wilkinson to send 
boats to meet him at the 
mouth of Genesee river, leav- 
ing McClure and the militia 
at^Fort George, 101-U>4 

reports to the Secretary of War 
his movements, 104-106 

overtakes Wilkinson's army at 
Waddington, Nov. 6, 107 

captures Fort Matilda, Ht8 

has a sharp action with Lieut. 
Col. Dennis at Hooppole 
Creek, Nov. 11, 108, 109 

his reflections on the punish- 



Index. 



645 



ment due to the incapacity 
of commanders, 110, 111 

called to Wasliington by the 
President in November 1813, 
115 

sent back to command the 
Niagara district, 115, 116 

remains for two months at Al- 
bany, lie, 117 

is made briiiadicr general, the 
middle of Mareh, 18U, 117 

rei>orts to Major Gen. Brown, 
near Buffalo, March 24, 
1814, 118 

instructs and drills the troops 
very thoi-oughly, orally and 
by written orders, 1111-121 

encounters imminent peril of 
drowning in attacking Fort 
Erie, 123 

pursues the enemy sixteen miles 
on the 4th of July, 1814, 
124-126 

fights the battle of Chippewa 
on the 5th of July, 127-132 

pursues Riall on the 7th of 
July, 135 

fights" the battle of Lundy's 
Lane, 139-146 

guides General Brown in the 
darkness to the foot of the 
lane, 142 

is severely wounded and car- 
ried oifthe field, 145 

is promoted to the rank of ma- 
jor general, 147 

is carried to Buli'alo, and thence 
successively by slow stages 
and with considerable stops 
to Batavia, Geneva, Albany, 
New York, Princeton, Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore, 148- 
152 

is voted a gold medal by Con- 
gress, 152 

is oft'ered a command at New 
Orleans, 153 

is made president of a board of 
tactics, 154 



Scott, Winfield — 

presides over a court of inquiry 
in the case of (Jen. Winder, 
154 

is a member and president of 
the board for reduction of 
officers in the army, and 
oU'ered the position of Secre- 
tary of War, either perma- 
nently or ad interhti, but 
declines, 156 

sails far Europe with limited 
diplomatic functions, 157 

bis experiences and observa- 
tions there, 157-167 

sets on foot a celebration of the 
battle of New Orleans in Par- 
is, 164 

gives a toast reflecting on Sir 
Edward Pakenham, 167 

causes the publication of the 
proceedings in a London pa- 
per, 167 

dines with Lord Holland seve- 
ral times, 168 

rebukes the captain of the Bel- 
lerophon at his table, 170 

visits John Parish, Esq., of 
Bath, 170 

his interview with, and remin- 
iscences of. Lady Johnson, 
formerly Miss Franks, 171- 
174 

his reflections on peace and 
war, 176-177 

his views on the abolition ex- 
citement, 177-180 

he regards the doctrine of State 
rights as one cause of the re- 
bellion, 180-183 

holds slavery as wrong in th(.> 
abstract, 184 

view of the evils of abrupt abo- 
lition of slavery, 184-186 

regards gradual emancipation 
preferable, 186 

history of the movements for 
this made bv Hon. Bufua 
King, &;c., 186-181) 



646 



Index. 



Scott, WinfioUl — 

his marriapie with Miss Maria 
Mayo, 191 

presentation of gold medal to, 
by President Monroe, 192 

his reply to President Monroe's 
address, lSt2 

is presented with a sword by 
the State of Vir<;inia, through 
Gov. Pleasants, 193, 194 

sword presentation to, by Gov. 
Tompkins, on behalf of New 
York, 194-196 

his replies to Gov. Pleasants 
and (iov. Tompkins, 193-196 

his diffieultv with Gen. Jack- 
son, 196-203 

publication of his "Scheme for 
Restricting the use of Ar- 
dent Spirits in the United 
States," and its result in pro- 
moting the formation of tem- 
perance societies throughout 
the country, 204, 205 

prepares his " (Jeneral Regula- 
tions " or " Mihtary Insti- 
tutes forthe Army," in"1818, 
and his " Tactics " and " Mi- 
litia Organization," in 1826, 
205, 206 

intrigues to prevent his ap- 
pointment to succeed Gen. 
Brown as gencral-in-chief, in 
1828, 208-211 

his correspondence with Presi- 
dent Adams on the subject, 
211-216 

ordered to the Northwest on 
account of the Black Ilawk 
war, 218 

acts as physician to his troops 
attacked with Asiatic cholera, 
219 

reaches Prairie du Chien, and 
finds the Indians defeated 
and the war over, 2 1 9 

his management of and confer- 
ences with the Indians, 221- 
229 



Scott, Winfield— 

letters of Gen. Cass and Capt. 
Richard Bache, on conduct 
of, 230-232 

visits West Point, symptoms of 
cholera, 233, 234" 

called to Washington, and sent 
at once South to counteract 
the designs of the nulliliers, 
234-236 

calls u])on ex-President Adams 
— Adams' prediction, 235, 
236 

his movements at Charleston, 
233 

visits Augusta, Ga., and se- 
cures the Arsenal, 236 

spends some time at Savannah, 
237 

his letter to the Hon. Wm. C. 
Preston, with letter to Secre- 
tary Cass communicating it, 
237-244 

revisits Charleston Harbor se- 
cretly, 244 

finding a suspension of the re- 
bellion determined upon by 
its authors, returns tempora- 
rily to New York, via Wil- 
mington, 244, 245 

re-embai-ks for Charleston in 
January, 245 

writes to Gen. Broadnax, to 
dissuade Virginia from nul- 
lification, &:c , 246 

meets ilon. B. W. Leigh, com- 
missioner from Va. at Charles- 
ton, 246 

his policy of forbearance and 
conciliation, and its effect, 
247-255 

sends assistance at a fire in 
Charleston, 250-252 

letter of Hon. B. W. Leigh to 
E. D. Mansfield, in regaid to 
his management at Charles- 
ton, 255-257 

piracy and mutilation of his 
Tactics and Military Institutes 



Index. 



647 



under the direction of Jeffer- 
son Davis and others, 258- 
259 

embarrassed by the foolish mis- 
management of Gen. Gaines, 
262 

foiled of success by Major 
General Jesup's hastv action, 
263 

is denounced by Gen. Jesup, 
who is ordered to supersede 
him, 263, 264 

is brought before a court of in- 
quiry, consisting of Gens. 
Macomb, Atkinson and 
Brady, 270 

his defence before the court of 
inquiry, 270-273 

his acquittal by the court, the 
decision of which President 
Jackson neither sets aside 
nor approves, 273 

is offered a public dinner by 
his friends in New York and 
elsewhere, in honor of his 
acquittal, but declines on ac- 
count of the state of the 
country, 276, 277 

reminiscences of the Biddle 
family, 277-280 

speech of Hon. Richard Biddle 
in Congress, in defence of, 
280-284 

review of Judge Nicholas' Es- 
says on Martial Law, dis- 
cussing Gen. Jackson's arrest 
of Judge Hall at New Orleans 
by, 284-297 

announces Gen. Jackson's death 
at West Point, 300 

friendly relations of, witli Pres- 
ident Van Buren, 301-304 

at Washington a guest of the 
President, Jan. 4, 1838, 306, 
307 

ordered instantly to the fron- 
tier, 307 

prevails on Gov. Marcy and 
Adj. Gen. McDonald to ac- 



company him to the scene of 
difficulties, 308 

visits repeatedly all parts of 
tlie frontier, 310 

addresses gatherings of citizens 
at all points, 308 

assisted by Gens. Brady, Worth. 
Wool and Eustis, 309 

brief summary of his addresses, 
and their success, 310-313 

the connection of, with the 
steamer Barcelona, 313-317 

effective remonstrance of, to 
the British authorities against 
firing upon the Barcelona, 
315, 317 

is ordered to superintend the 
removal of the Cherokees, 
317 

arrives at the Cherokee agency 
on the Hi:iwassec, 319 

his general orders to the white 
troops, 320-322 

his address to the Cherokees, 
323-325 

his account of the removal of 
the Cherokees, 326-330 

ordered back to Canada fron- 
tier, 331 

visits Frankfort, Ky., and Co- 
lumbus, , to make contin- 
gent arrangements for volun- 
teers, 332 

quiets the disturbance, 332 

goes to Washington for instruc- 
tions on the Aroostook diffi- 
culty, 332, 333 

aids in the passage of two bills, 
one calling out the militia for 
six months, the other appro- 
priating ten millions of dol- 
lars extra, 333 

Governor E. Everett's address 
to him, and his reply, 334, 
335 

is called upon for a speech at 
Portland, Me., but declines, 
336 

finds great irritation and e.\- 



(lis 



Indcy. 



citcment at Augusta, the 
capital, 3oC-3;j8 

the trouble of, increased by tlic 
publication of the inenioian- 
iluni between the Secretai y 
of State and 11. li. M. Minis- 
ter, Mr. I>'o.x, :i:j!S-:Ml 

reniini.seenees of Sir John 
Ilaivry, 342, :M3 

conv-spondenee with Sir John 
Harvey, 347-352 

eilects a reconciliation between 
Gov. Fairfield and Lieut. 
Gov. Harvey, 345-;j52 

manaj^ement of Whig legisla- 
tors at Senator Evans' dinner 
party, 344, 345 

eulogy of Dr. W. E. Channing 
on, 352-354 

one of the candidates for the 
Presidency at the National 
Convention in 1839, 355- 
359 

his supporters go over to Gen. 
Harrison, 359 

estimate of Gen. Harrison, 3.')9 

estimate of John Tvler, 360, 
361 

becomes Gen.-in-Chiel' of the 
Army in .June, 1S41, 361 

his general orders on arbitrary 
and illegal punishments in 
the army, 361-366 

attempts made to abolish his of- 
fice, and to cut down his pay 
and emoluments, 36()-368 

defence of, by John Q. Adams 
and Charles J. IngersoU, 367, 
368 

reminiscences of Charles J. 
IngersoU, 369 

letter of, on slavery, to T. P. 
Atkinson, 370-376 

letter and essav on peace by, 
377-37;) 

estimate of the character of 
James K. Polk'. 380 

sends Gen. Tavlor to Corpus 
Christ;, 881 



Scott, Winfield — 

estimate of Gen. Taylor's char- 
acter, 382-384 

proposition to send him to the 
Kio Gi'ande ; Democrats ob- 
ject, 384 

the " hasty plate of sou))," 
" conquering a peace," a 
" lire upon the rear," 385 

tlie gold medal to Gen. Taylor, 
his suggestions concerning it, 
386-389 

his commendation of Gen. 
Taylor's honesty to the com- 
mittee, 390, 39 i 

his martial law order, to sup- 
press the outrages of volun- 
teers in Mexico — not ap- 
proved by the President or 
Secretary of War, :;93, 394 

sends it to Gen. Taylor, who 
throws it aside, 394 

subse(|ucntly published and 
enforced bv, in Mexico, 395, 
396 

the martial law order of, as 
published, 540-549 

is ordered to Mexico, Ijy the 
AVar Department, 397," 398 

Mr. PolU's duplicity and in- 
tiigues to appoint Col. Ren- 
ton Lieut. -General aiul ])lace 
him over^ Gen. Scott, 3'.t8- 
401 

fails to meet Gen. Taylor, and 
his communications ".ith him 
are captured by the Mexicans, 
402, 403 

orders a part of Taylor's force 
to descend to the sea coast 
to join his army in an attack 
on Vera Cruz, 404, 4()5 

Gen. Taylor's coiiplaint con- 
cerning this order of, 405, 
406 

reply of, to (icn. Taylor's com- 
plaints, 406-413 

rendezvous of his transports at 
the Lobos islands, 413 



Index. 



649 



Scott, Winfield — 

his attack upon and capture of 

Vera Cruz and the Castle of 

San Juan de Ulloa, 413-430 

\ troubles of, in relation to the 

Mexican campaign, 415-418 

makes a reconnoissance of Vera 

Cruz, with Col. Totten, 422 
issues General Orders No. Ill, 
giving plan of battle of Cerro 
Gordo, 433 
report of the battle of Cerro 
Gordo, April 19, 1847, by, 
436-443 
supplemental report of the bat- 
tle of Cerro Gordo, April 23, 
hy, 443-451 
surrender of Jalapa and Perote, 

to, 452 
delay at Jalapa and Puebla, 

452-455 
visits Cholula, 455-458 
composition of his army from 

Puebla to Mexico, 4t)0-465 
crosses the Rio Frio range of 

mountains, 466 
his first view of the city of 

Mexico, 467 
reconnoitres towards Mexico, 

467-469 
resolves to turn the lakes, 469, 

470 
arrives at San Augustin, 470 
makes further reconnoissances, 

471 
report of the battle of Contre- 

ras, 472-476 
report of the battles of San 
Antonio, Churubusco, &c. 
477-502 
report of infraction of armistice, 
and battle of Moliuo del 
Rey, 505-507 
report of reconnoissances, the 
capture of Chepultepcc, the 
carrying of the San Cosme 
and Helen gates, and the sur- 
render of the city of Mexico, 
608-534 

28 



Scott, Winfield — 

general orders issued by, on 
entering the city of Mexico, 
535, 536 
grants a passport to the wife 

of Santa Anna, 537 
issues a conciliatory proclama- 
tion at Jalapa, May 11, 1847, 
549 
is urged to support the army 
by forced contributions, but 
finds it impossible, 552 
system of finance in Mexico, 

instituted by, 553-572 
his Report No. 40, giving dis- 
tances to provincial capitals, 
554-556 
his Report No. 41, detailing a 
part of his financial plan, 
556-562 
I his recall demanded by disaf- 
fected officers, 571 
learns that he is to be placed 
before a court martial for 
daring to enforce discipline 
against high offifers, 573 
is superseded by Gen. W. 0. 

Butler, 573 
his intercourse with Mr. Trist, 
U. S. Commissioner to 
Mexico, 575-580 
maintains order in Mexico, 580, 

581 
is offered the Presidency of 
that Republic, but declines, 
581, 582 
money received by, in Mexico, 

how disposed of, 582, 583 
instructed to submit himself to 
a court of inquiry, consisting 
of Maj. Gen. Towson, and 
Brig. Gens. Belknap and 
Gushing, 583 
court of inquiry sits some 
weeks in Mi'xico, and then 
adjourns to Frederick, Md., 
584 
charges against, in court of in- 
quiry, witlidrawu, 584 



650 



Index. 



Scott, Winfield — 

sails from Vera Cniz, and 
anivc's in New York, Mav 

20, 18-18, 585, 586 

coninimid liiiiitoil to tlie Eastci n 
Di'pai tuu'iit of the army, at 
his own instance, and in com- 
pliment to (ien. Taylor, to 
whom the Western Depart- 
ment was assigned, 580 

resolutions of thanks to, passed 
by Conf^ress, 580-588 

the action of Congress and the 
Cabinet, in regard to con- 
feiring the Lieutenant Gen- 
eralshi|) upon, 588-694 

his headciuaiters in New York, 
from 1849 to 1850, and fiom 
1852 to 1801, and in Wnsh- 
ington fiom 1850 to 1852, 
and from Jan. to Nov. 1801, 
694, 595 

nominated for the Presidency 
in June, 1852, 595 

opposition of Mr. Fillmore and 
Mr. Webster to, 596 

his defeat, reflections concern- 
ing, 590-598 

proposition to send him to 
Kansas in 1850 to quiet the 
bolder troubles there, dis- 
cus.-ed in the N.' Y. Times 
and Tribune, 598-000 

letter of, to John C. Hamilton 
in ngard to annexation of 
Canada, 001-003 

protests against Floyd's Utah 
Exj)cdilion, 004 

is sent to Tnget's Sound to set- 
tle the San Juan Island dilli- 
culty, 004-000 

mcasims urged and sec\ired 
by, to improve the condition 
and (fficiency of the army, 
6ii7-(.09 

his memorial to President Bu- 
chanan on the danger of a 
disru|)tion of the Union, in 
October, 180U, 009-011 



Scott, Winfield — 

action of, at the inauguration 
of President Lincoln, Oil, 
012 
his statement of measures he 
had recommended to the 
administration of Mr. Bu- 
chanan, in relation to seces- 
sion, subnutted to Mr. Lin- 
coln's administration, March, 
1801, 012-025 
letter of, to W. H. Seward, 

March 3, 1801, 025-028 
literarv honors conferred upon, 

62S" 
retires from active duty, Oct. 

31, 1801, 628, 629 
testimonials from States and 

Cities to, 629 
President Lincoln's allusion to, 
in his first annual message, 
Dec. 1801, 030 
Semisolk War, the, commenced Dec. 
28, 1835, and lasted seven 
years, 200 
Sknkca and other Indians attack the 
hostile Indians and tuke pris- 
oners, 96, 97 
Sewarp, William IL, Secretary of 
State, letter of Gen. Scott 
to, 625-628 
Seymoi:r, Lieut. (1st Artillery), com- 
mended by G'en. Scott, 446 
SiiEAKFE, General, interview with, at 
Newark (now Niagara), 06, 
67 
papers returned bv Col. Scott, 
99 
SiiEPiiEitn, Licnt. 0. L., 3d Infantry, 
connnended by Gen. Scott, 
491 
Shields, Brig. Gen., efforts of, to 
I)roeuve action on Scott's ap- 
pointment as Lieut. General, 
5'.)1, 593 
severely wounded at battle of 

Cerro Gordo, 437, 447 
resumes his command, move- 
ments of, at Contieras, &c.. 



Index. 



651 



4'74,475,47'7,479, 483, 492, 

493, 495 
gallant conduct of, at Contreras, 

481, 485 

movements of his division, 515, 

516, 517, 6-25 

Simmons, Caton, of South Carolina, 

Mr. Scott's recollections of, 22 

Slavery, letter of Gen. Scott to T. 

P. Atkinson on, 370-376 
Slates, newly imported, incidents 

concerning, 23, 24 
Slemmer, Lieut., order of Gen. 

Scott to, 622, 623 
Small, Captain, Penn. Vol., com- 
mended by Col. Childs and 
Gen. Scott, 550 
Smith, C. F., Lieut. Col. (afterward 
Brig. Gen.), 440, 449, 471, 
488 
Smith G. W., Lieut., commended 
by Gen. Scott, 450, 481,484, 
501, 534 
Smith, Major J. L., mentioned and 

commended, 500 
Smith, Gen. Persifer F., movements 
of his division, 515, 517 
mentioned and commended, 
4.59, 473, 478, 479, 484, 491, 
579 
Smith, Capt. I. M., Sd Infantry, com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 491 
Smyth, Brig. Gen. Alexander, re- 
miniscences of, 54, note 
Soldiers of British birth, released 
by the British government in 
1815,81 
Steamer, the first that descended the 
Mississippi to New Orleans, 
seen by Scott, Dec. 25, 1811, 
46 
Steele, Lieut., 2d Inf., commend- 
ed, 518 
Steptoe, Capt., and Lieut. Brown, 
commended by Gen. Scott, 
446 
Stevens, Lieut, Isaac I. (afterward 
Major Gen.), commended, 
50, 470, 484, 501, 508, 634 



Stone, Chas. P., Lieut., commend- 
ed, 519, 534 

Suit, brought by slaves to recover 
their freedom, sketch of, 27, 
28 

Sumner, Chas., anecdote of, 189, 190 

Sumner, Major E. V. (afterward 
Major General), wounded 
April 17, 1847, 438, 486 

Swift, Jonathan, Dean, &c., intro- 
dudion, ix & x 
his pamphlet, Conduct of the 
Allies, and its influence, in- 
troduction, X 
his Last Four Years of Queen 
Anne, introduction, x 
Sylla's twenty-two Books of Com- 
mentaries, introduction, x 



Taylor, George Keith, Mr. Scott's 

reminiscences of, 26-29 
Taylor, Brig. Gen. Zachary, suc- 
ceeds Gen. Jesup in Florida, 
and wins the battle of Oke- 
chobee, 264 
sent to Corpus Christi, on the 

Mexican frontier, 381 
Gen. Scott sends Capt. (after- 
ward Lt. Col.) Bliss to him 
as Chief of Staff, 382 
Gen.Scott's estimate of, 382-384 
Gen. Scott's suggestions in re- 
gard to a medal for, 386-389 
nominated for the Presidency, 

389, 390 
Scott commends his honesty to 

the Committee, 390, 391 
outrages of his volunteer troops 

on the Pao Grande, 392 
vacillation of, in regard to the 

point of attack, 403, 404 
complains of Gen. Scott's strip- 
ping him of his troops, 405, 
406 
reply of Gen. Scott to this ac- 
cusation of, 406-413 
TAYL0R,Capt. (Artillery), mentioned, 

491 
Temple, Sir William, introduction, ix 



652 



Index. 



Tkstimoxials presented to Gen. 
Scott from States, Cities, &c. 
629 

Tompkins, Gov. D. D., speech of, in 
presentinti a sword to Gen. 
Scott, 194-196 

ToTTEN, Colonel (afterward Brig. 
Gen.), aids Gen. Scott in re- 
connoissance of Vera Cruz, 
422 
mentioned, 423, 425, 429 

Tower, Zealous B., Lieut, (since 
General), commended by 
Gen. Scott, 446, 450, 476, 
471, 480, 501, 508, 533 

Trist, Nicholas, U. S. commissioner 
to Mexico, mentioned, 571, 
575, 576, 577 

Trousdale, Col., of Cadwallader's 
brigade, mentioned by Gen. 
Scott, 489, 520 

TuRNBULL, Major, Topographical 
Engineers, commended by 
Gen. Scott, 449, 501, 533 

TwEEDALE, Marquess of, is pursiicd 
by Scott sixteen miles, July 
4, 1814, 124-126 
note concerning, 126, note 

Twiggs, Brig. Gen. D. E., commands 
a division, his movements, 
430-432, 439, 441, 44o, 465, 
467, 469, 471, 472,483, 484, 
486, 488, 490 
attacks and disperses Valen- 
cia's corps, 470 
movements of his division, 492, 
509, 510, 523, 524 

Tyler, John, Vice President, in- 
trigues for the nomination, 
360 
Gen. Scott's account of his ad- 
ministration, 360, 361 

Van Buren, Major Abram P., com- 
mended by Gen. Scott, 450, 
502 

Van Bures, Martin, President of 
U. S., relations of, with Gen. 
Scott, 301-305 



Van Dorn, Earl, Lieut., commended, 
519 

Van Rensselaer, Colonel (the self- 
styled), establishes himself 
on \avy Island, 305, 306 

Veri'lanck, Gulian C, article by, 
in Analectic Magazine, for 
Dec, 1814, 111 

Vinton, Capt. J. !{., & Capt. W. 
Alburtis, killed at attack on 
Vera Cruz, 429 

Virginia, Legislature of, assumes 
the part of mediator between 
the government and S. C, 246 

Webster, Daniel, remark of, con- 
cerning Taylor's nomination, 
382 

WniTELOCKE, Bulstrode, introduc- 
tion^ ix 

WiCKiJAM, John, one of Burr's coun- 
sel in the trial for high trea- 
son, 13 

Wilds, Judge, of South Carolina, 
Mr. Scott's recollections of, 
23 

Wilkinson and Hampton factions 
in the army, the, 36, 37 

Wilkinson's treason now fully es- 
tablished, -10,41 

Wilkinson, Maj. Gen., takes com- 
mand at Fort George, Sept 
4, 1813, 100 
moves down Lake Ontario, Oct. 

2, 100 
proposes to attack Montreal, 
106 

Williams, Gen. D. R., referred to, 
52 & note 

Williams, Lieut. Thomas (after- 
ward Brig. Gen.), commend- 
ed bv Gen. Scott, 450, 501, 
507, 533 

Wilson, Lt. Col. John Moryllion, 
wounded at Chippewa, 148 
& note 

Winder, Gen., captured at Stony 
Creek, June 6, 91, 92 
note concerning, 92 



Index. 



653 



WiNTHROP, Robert C, speaker of 
Mass. Assembly, welcomes 
Gen. Scott, 333 

Wirt, William, coadjutor to the U. 
S. District Attorney in Burr's 
trial, 14, 15 

Withers, Col., 9th Infantry, move- 
ments of, 558, 563 

Woods, Major, commended, 518 

WoRONZOw, Count, intimacy of Gen. 
Scott with, 165 
anecdote of, and the Emperor 
Alexander, 165, 166, note. 

Worth, Brig. Gen. W. J., succeeds 
Gen. Armistead, and patches 
up a treaty with the Indians, 
265 



Worth, Brig. Gen. J. W. — 

movements of his division, 

468, 469, 470, 478, 483, 486, 
487, 488, 492,495,510,513, 
514, 520, 521, 522,523, 524, 
625, 527, 528 

writes to Geu. Scott commend- 
ing his Jalapa proclamation, 
549 

relieved from arrest by order of 
President Polk, 584 
Wynkoop, Col., 1st Penn.Vol., cap- 
tures Gen. Valencia, 567, 568 

Xenophon's memoirs of the retreat 
of the ten thousand, intro- 
duction, xi 



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